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Boosted by jwz:
xgranade@wandering.shop ("Cassandra is only carbon now") wrote:

@glyph Mostly it's this part that strikes me as being something I deeply object to, and for three reasons.

We don't know the actual energy usage impact of AI, partly in thanks to corporate secrecy.

Whatever progress we've made in renewable energy, that doesn't change that many genAI companies are using non-renewable sources for training and inferencing energy (to wit, Musk in Memphis).

And finally, genAI eating up capacity means that progress in renewables has a reduced impact on energy use.

The argument about electricity is probably about the effect on climate change, since increased electricity use probably means increased carbon emissions, which cause harm. So using a generative model, and therefore increasing electricity use, and therefore maybe increasing emissions, may cause harm.