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It is easier to stop burning carbon than stop training of AI models. If you stop burning carbon, you fall back on other types of energy. In the long term, you

It is easier to stop burning carbon than stop training of AI models. If you stop burning carbon, you fall back on other types of energy. In the long term, you will win. If you stop training AIs, another company or state will keep on training AI and will outsmart you, you will be poor or get oppressed in the long term. In other words, no matter how loud influential people say 'stop!', the AI race is an unstoppable evolution.

Capricorn2481 3y ago
You're talking about how a business with profit motive looks at these things. I'm talking about how a society is going to look at the value of AI vs where we get our power. AI is a tool that is, so far, only wielded by big companies that have harvested enough data to make it worthwhile, and they'll give us a fraction of it as long as we pay. Electricity is foundational to our society, and so it's difficult to find alternative energy sources that can support us. We could do away with AI right now and be fine.
drewcoo 3y ago
> If you stop burning carbon, you fall back on other types of energy. In the long term, you will win. That's quite altruistic. > If you stop training AIs, another company or state will keep on training AI and will outsmart you, you will be poor or get oppressed in the long term. Competition trumps altruism with AI? Why not with burning fossil fuels? If you stop burning fossil fuels, you're going to use more expensive systems instead. Why wouldn't some competitor continue to use cheap fossil fuels and outcompete you? When you need more electricity, you'll buy it from the cheap, dirty players, right?
- nuancebydefault 3y ago
  On the short term, dirty means cheap. But on the longer term the renewable resources will be cheapest. Renewable has a big up-front cost. The huge infrastructure and logistics for fossil burning energy production is already in place.

Capricorn2481 3y ago

You're talking about how a business with profit motive looks at these things. I'm talking about how a society is going to look at the value of AI vs where we get our power. AI is a tool that is, so far, only wielded by big companies that have harvested enough data to make it worthwhile, and they'll give us a fraction of it as long as we pay. Electricity is foundational to our society, and so it's difficult to find alternative energy sources that can support us. We could do away with AI right now and be fine.

drewcoo 3y ago

> If you stop burning carbon, you fall back on other types of energy. In the long term, you will win. That's quite altruistic. > If you stop training AIs, another company or state will keep on training AI and will outsmart you, you will be poor or get oppressed in the long term. Competition trumps altruism with AI? Why not with burning fossil fuels? If you stop burning fossil fuels, you're going to use more expensive systems instead. Why wouldn't some competitor continue to use cheap fossil fuels and outcompete you? When you need more electricity, you'll buy it from the cheap, dirty players, right?

nuancebydefault 3y ago
On the short term, dirty means cheap. But on the longer term the renewable resources will be cheapest. Renewable has a big up-front cost. The huge infrastructure and logistics for fossil burning energy production is already in place.