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Regardless of how useful some might find it, there isn’t a single use case that justifies the environmental cost (not to mention the societal cost). None. Stop using it. You were able to survive and function without it 2 years ago, and you still can.
This is like saying you can't play video games because it costs electricity and you can go without. You can say it about literally everything that isn't strictly necessary to live. AI isn't just LLMs and only LLMs have a high environmental cost, and unless you are literally wasting the output like the big tech companies are, even that can be justified for the right reasons.
Hey man, why are we using the internet, don't you see this is bad for the environment, while your at it. stop wearing clothes! Our ancestors were able to get by with just our body hair, we're ruining nature.
That's how I read the post above you.
Yes, exactly. And I don't even disagree with making things better on the environment. It's why I dislike LLMs being pushed into random things that don't really need it. And if more efficient models exist, they should preferably be used.
But using AI to make your life a little better also brings positives that outweigh that cost. And it seems like as a society we have much bigger polluters to take care of that use orders more electricity and water, and we already struggle massively doing just that. So it really feels like misdirected anger towards the unfairness in society (which the societal cost they mentioned also seems to point to) than a real criticism of AI. And I can understand that anger, but not the mindset behind the conclusions derived from it.
Fully Agree.
You are not aware of the cost (which has been widely documented) if you believe that.
Do feel free to explain what you mean and why, because this comment literally has nothing for me to even respond to.
EDIT: And if you meant the water cost, you can read my rationale on that here.
sounds like a frog in a saucepan.. sure is getting warmer!
The earth has been warming for decades at this point, even before AI. We know what causes climate change and AI has so far been a footnote on a large list of unsolved problems. The moment that changes I'll be right there with you, but I'm far more interested in taking down the companies that are largely responsible for it. This logic follows that just living life as a human is unethical because you can't be environmentally neutral in today's society, and I reject that notion.
its the speed of the change innit. for example, the fact that google power requirements has increase 50% in the last year must have a tremendous impact.
And Google as one of the largest companies in the world should be held fully responsible for that. But Google isn't everyone. Google also has a huge amount of computers under their name, but does that mean everyone with a computer should be held to the same standards because it's the same technology?
If sweeping conclusions are going to be made about the technology, it has to be looked at outside of the context of a specific company and how they implement and use AI. Otherwise, it should be specified that this is a criticism of specific companies and how they use AI, and I'd be totally there agreeing with you in the case of Google.
yeah, but it's all about how we use the technology. because we can absolutely find a solution to our climate problem by using what we have today. Tech is definitely a double edged sword and we're just using it wrong. all because of greed and corruption. And that's what we definitely need to solve, greed and corruption, and not go all Pol Pot on tech.