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How are claims about "X technology uses as much energy as a small nation" evaluated? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I see news stories that will give examples of how much energy a type of technology uses (usually AI or crypto). They'll claim very big numbers like the whole ecosystem using "as much as a small country" or one instance of use being "as much as an average home uses in a year."

With the crypto ecosystem being so big and I'm less inclined to defend it, I haven't thought as much about the claims. But with AI while it still has problematic aspects, it also has a lot of useful applications. When I run a single query the idea it's the same energy as driving my car ten miles or whatever doesn't seem to pass the smell test.

How are these numbers generated? Historically media doesn't do great with science reporting ("a cure for cancer was just invented" etc) so just trying to get some context/perspective.

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

But with AI while it still has problematic aspects, it also has a lot of useful applications.

Ah yes, stealing content en masse and polluting the whole internet with junk content in the hopes of being able to monopolize entire industries. Peak usefulness.

(There are of course many useful applications of AI in general. But they also tend to not burn through as much energy and processing power as LLMs)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use an LLM pretty much every day to assist with software development. I find it to be very useful.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That's good for you, however, content generation from these models has still polluted the internet and using Google's Image search is impossible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thought I replied to this but don't see it here:

If you look at my original comment I said that AI has problematic aspects, and also has real uses. I don't think what you said is inconsistent with what I said.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I'm not sure what original comment you mean.

The reason for my comment was that the comment I replied to wasn't addressing what the comment you were replying to, brought up. They bring up issues with using Google now has worsened because of LLMs and your reply said "well it's useful for me in software development". Like I said, that's good for you but doesn't address actual issues.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

That's 100% on Google.

They abandoned their search tool like 5 years ago.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah, yeah, that's what they said about the steam engine, and... Oh, it did exactly what you said. Nevermind.