The massive computer clusters powering artificial intelligence consume vast quantities to answer the world’s queries, but how is Big Tech redressing the balance?

Writing a 100-word email using ChatGPT (GPT-4, latest model) consumes 1 x 500ml bottle of water It uses 140Wh of energy, enough for 7 full charges of an iPhone Pro Max

  • @MonsieurmoucheEnglish
    1•1 month ago

    Is this for inferencing only? Do you include training?

    • @[email protected]English
      2•1 month ago

      Inference only. I’m looking into doing some fine tuning. Training from scratch is another story.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•30 days ago

      Training is a one time thing. Tge more it get use, the less energy per query it will take

      • @MonsieurmoucheEnglish
        1•30 days ago

        Good point. But considering the frequent retraining, the environmental impacts can only be spread on a finite number of queries.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•29 days ago

          They have already reached diminishing returns on training. It will become much less frequent soon. Retraining on the same data if there isn’t a better method is useless. I think the ressources consumed per query should only include those actually used for inference. The rest can be dismissed as bad faith argumentation.