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Despite the typical complaints about "X new thing harming the environment!!!", LLMs are as friendly as it gets, it 1. Consumes a minor amount of electricity (D
by anonylizard 3y ago
Despite the typical complaints about "X new thing harming the environment!!!", LLMs are as friendly as it gets, it
1. Consumes a minor amount of electricity (Data centers is only 2% of US electricity use, and currently AI is maybe only 5-10% of that). Its trivial compared to say metal smelting.
2. Consume water for cooling.
That's it, there is 0 direct pollution generated from AI, and even the water use is very minor compared to say farming, and can be improved via more water efficient cooling techs.
The main concern is the scaling speed. As LLMs scale up 10x, 100x, 1000x, those previously very minor electricity costs can quickly become grid impacting in a decade.
- marmaduke 3y agoI can't buy this kind of argument anymore. How about the external effect of AI steering the entire semiconductor industry to increase GPU/NPU capacity?
- vortegne 3y agoThis kind of argument is actually totally valid. But only if you subscribe to the current meta of widely accepted handwaving. Externalities are never a part of capitalist math. Non-trivial consequences can never hurt if one never looks further than their own nose.