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AI solves gigantic issues and helps us with cancer, protein folding, potentially math and other studies, material science etc. Bitcoin consumes as much energy

AI solves gigantic issues and helps us with cancer, protein folding, potentially math and other studies, material science etc. Bitcoin consumes as much energy as a country and has basically done nothing besides moving money from one group of people to a random other group of people. And bitcoin is also motivated to find the cheapest energy independent of any ethical reasoning (taking energy from cheap chinese hydro and disrupting local energy networks) while AI will have energy from the richest companies in the world (ms, google, etc.) which already working on co2 neutral 24/7.

bergen 2y ago
None of your problems in the first sentence are solved by LLMs. I do not dispute AI research and applications and their benefits, but the current LLM and GenerativeAI hype is of no value to hard scientific problems. Otherwise I agree with you.
- Zambyte 2y ago
  I think the coolest counterpoint to this I have seen so far is people using generative AI to design materials with desired properties. For example, discovering new super conductors[0]. [0] https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/230503-ai-discovers-novel-superconductor https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/230503-ai-discover...
kmacdough 2y ago
The benefit is all for naught if it undermines the fabric of society at the same time. All these benefits will only go to the few who land on top of this mess. It's continuing to widen the wealth gap as it is.
- k8sagic 2y ago
  The wealth gap is widening while in parallel poorer people have better lives than ever. We house, heat and give access to knowledge to a lot more people than ever before. Cheap medical procedures through AI will help us all. The AI which will be able to analyse the x-ray picture from some 3th world country? It only needs a basic x-ray machine and some internet. The AI will be able to tell you what you have. I'm also convinced that if AGI is happening in the next 10 years, it will affect that many people that our society has to discuss capitalisms future.
- HermanMartinus 2y ago
  Yeah, Bitcoin is dual-edged like that. Harming people and harming the planet.
EdwardDiego 2y ago
Which gigantic issues has it solved? Curious to know.
- k8sagic 2y ago
  I actually listed them up directly after. For example alphafold: Protein folding. It is also now used in fusion reactor plasma control
  - EdwardDiego 2y ago
    It didn't solve protein folding. It led to new areas of inquiry, but it didn't solve it. May I recommend reading Derek Lowe's "In The Pipeline" blog for a realistic discussion of the actual impact of Alphafold? [0] And seeing as we don't have viable fusion yet, saying it "solved" it is really reaching. I'm sure it's helping, but solved? No. [0]: https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/ai-and-machine-learning https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/ai-and-machine-l...

bergen 2y ago

None of your problems in the first sentence are solved by LLMs. I do not dispute AI research and applications and their benefits, but the current LLM and GenerativeAI hype is of no value to hard scientific problems. Otherwise I agree with you.

Zambyte 2y ago
I think the coolest counterpoint to this I have seen so far is people using generative AI to design materials with desired properties. For example, discovering new super conductors[0]. [0] https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/230503-ai-discovers-novel-superconductor https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/230503-ai-discover...

kmacdough 2y ago

The benefit is all for naught if it undermines the fabric of society at the same time. All these benefits will only go to the few who land on top of this mess. It's continuing to widen the wealth gap as it is.

k8sagic 2y ago
The wealth gap is widening while in parallel poorer people have better lives than ever. We house, heat and give access to knowledge to a lot more people than ever before. Cheap medical procedures through AI will help us all. The AI which will be able to analyse the x-ray picture from some 3th world country? It only needs a basic x-ray machine and some internet. The AI will be able to tell you what you have. I'm also convinced that if AGI is happening in the next 10 years, it will affect that many people that our society has to discuss capitalisms future.
HermanMartinus 2y ago
Yeah, Bitcoin is dual-edged like that. Harming people and harming the planet.

EdwardDiego 2y ago

Which gigantic issues has it solved? Curious to know.

k8sagic 2y ago
I actually listed them up directly after. For example alphafold: Protein folding. It is also now used in fusion reactor plasma control
- EdwardDiego 2y ago
  It didn't solve protein folding. It led to new areas of inquiry, but it didn't solve it. May I recommend reading Derek Lowe's "In The Pipeline" blog for a realistic discussion of the actual impact of Alphafold? [0] And seeing as we don't have viable fusion yet, saying it "solved" it is really reaching. I'm sure it's helping, but solved? No. [0]: https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/ai-and-machine-learning https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/ai-and-machine-l...