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At the very least, the article has brought to the forefront the awareness that, in addition to all the other effects of the hype, the research and use of AI on

At the very least, the article has brought to the forefront the awareness that, in addition to all the other effects of the hype, the research and use of AI on a large scale also consumes an extreme amount of energy. Since we should all be concerned about protecting our resources and thus the planet - and that means reducing unnecessary energy consumption - this figure should be clearly included in the general costs of AI. And by that I don't mean in the electricity bills of corporations. Of course, it is in the interest of researchers to increase the efficiency of modelling and application, but for other reasons. As long as the big, well-known companies are in charge, the target figure towards which everything is optimised and maximised is commercial profit. To cut a long story short, the only way to gain some ground here is through independent regulation, for example to get more transparency into this issue.

sdenton4 3y ago
To be sure, we only care about electricity usage because of externalities, most importantly CO2 emissions. Many of the big players have gone to great lengths to build out renewables capacity to power their data centers, which tends not to be considered in these articles.
Gormo 3y ago
> Since we should all be concerned about protecting our resources and thus the planet To my knowledge, most of the researchers and users of AI are using their own resources, not "ours", so I'm not sure there's much to be worried about. > And by that I don't mean in the electricity bills of corporations. What else would it be accounted for in? The users of electricity are purchasing it from the producers, who in turn purchase equipment and services from vendors, etc. It's all a chain of specific transactions among specific parties all the way down. There's no point at which some fuzzy collection of arbitrarily aggregated people is involved as one of the parties. > As long as the big, well-known companies are in charge, the target figure towards which everything is optimised and maximised is commercial profit. And they make that profit by delivering value to their customers -- what's the problem there? > To cut a long story short, the only way to gain some ground here is through independent regulation, for example to get more transparency into this issue. What is "independent regulation"? Who is conducting it, what makes them "independent" and what is their incentive to be involved in the first place?

sdenton4 3y ago

To be sure, we only care about electricity usage because of externalities, most importantly CO2 emissions. Many of the big players have gone to great lengths to build out renewables capacity to power their data centers, which tends not to be considered in these articles.

Gormo 3y ago

> Since we should all be concerned about protecting our resources and thus the planet To my knowledge, most of the researchers and users of AI are using their own resources, not "ours", so I'm not sure there's much to be worried about. > And by that I don't mean in the electricity bills of corporations. What else would it be accounted for in? The users of electricity are purchasing it from the producers, who in turn purchase equipment and services from vendors, etc. It's all a chain of specific transactions among specific parties all the way down. There's no point at which some fuzzy collection of arbitrarily aggregated people is involved as one of the parties. > As long as the big, well-known companies are in charge, the target figure towards which everything is optimised and maximised is commercial profit. And they make that profit by delivering value to their customers -- what's the problem there? > To cut a long story short, the only way to gain some ground here is through independent regulation, for example to get more transparency into this issue. What is "independent regulation"? Who is conducting it, what makes them "independent" and what is their incentive to be involved in the first place?