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All this talk of frontier models and replacing developers leaves me wondering how energy efficient this all is compared to just using human labor. The costs of
by olelele 4mo ago
All this talk of frontier models and replacing developers leaves me wondering how energy efficient this all is compared to just using human labor. The costs of R&D has to be calculated into the equation, especially considering global warming. I get a sense we are cooking the planet doing this.
Anyone smart enough here to make the comparison?
- jstummbillig 4mo agoIn the "it works"* case: It's not even close. I did the math at some point (but I encourage you to talk it through with the LLM of your choice, there is obviously a lot of things to consider and weigh). Anyhow, my research summary: Individual humans are so fucking expensive to train and upkeep (and this includes everything from before womb, where another human already limits their ability to work) You retain ~zero knowledge after death and start all over again for another measly 15 years of effective, productive work. Model training/r&d in relation, when deployed and used at scale, rounds to zero, even with the current retraining regime. *Of course, the ratio can go to negative infinite if one assumes that models are doing 0 useful work currently and never will
- vb-8448 4mo ago> Individual humans are so fucking expensive to train and upkeep This statement is dangerous man! The step from here to "we need just a couple of tens of millions of people around the world" is so narrow!
- jstummbillig 4mo agoEh. Not to me, rest assured. I find humans both comically tragic and incredibly precious.