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People who write about this stuff refuse to believe how much energy an oil refinery or a chlorine factory consumes. But not one single journalist in the history
by jeffbee 2y ago
People who write about this stuff refuse to believe how much energy an oil refinery or a chlorine factory consumes. But not one single journalist in the history of America has ever written a flashy headline like "Chloralkali process consumes more energy than thirty entire states" even though that headline would be completely accurate.
- benrutter 2y agoI think, especially in the case of an oil factory, people expect it to be awful for the planet. AI is interesting because it isn't expected to be bad for the planet. Or at least was, I think we have all read these articles a lot now.
- jeffbee 2y agoI don't expect AI to be bad for the planet either because unlike many other industries it completely internalizes its energy costs. The industry is naturally incentivized to reduce its energy consumption, because energy is ~100% of their operating cost.
- benrutter 2y agoWell, that sounds good, but that also is true of heating which remains one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions.