First-of-its-kind US bill would address the environmental costs of the technology, but there’s a long way to go.

one assessment suggests that ChatGPT, the chatbot created by OpenAI in San Francisco, California, is already consuming the energy of 33,000 homes. It’s estimated that a search driven by generative AI uses four to five times the energy of a conventional web search. Within years, large AI systems are likely to need as much energy as entire nations.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•9 months ago

    Honest question, why is AI bad but TVs aren’t? What’s the environmental cost of millions of people watching Netflix? Using Instagram? Playing video games? Using search engines?

    If you wanna get mad at people using computers for their environmental costs why are you starting with AI?

    Bitcoin had legitimate reason to be environmentally concerned about, the algorithm was literally based on proof of wasting energy, and that would scale up overtime, AI is not like that.

    • Flying Squid
      1•9 months ago

      Can you name the TV company that uses 6% of a sizable city’s municipal water supply?

      • @[email protected]English
        0•9 months ago

        TCL, Sony, Vizio, LG, Samsung, literally all of them easily do in the course of manufacturing them, not to mention the ongoing water usage of all the servers streaming you TV shows.

        Again, how is AI different then literally any other popular computer activity? The more popular it is, the greater it’s environmental cost.

        • Flying Squid
          1•9 months ago

          Really? Which specific city?

          Or do you not understand that taking 6% of one specific city’s water is very different from taking that same amount of water distributed around the world?

          Also, should AI not be criticized for wasting water? Just TVs? Are there other industries where wasting large amounts of water should be ignored?

          Maybe any company using up 6% or more of a city’s municipal water system shouldn’t be allowed to do so regardless of what industry they’re in. What do you think?

          • @[email protected]English
            1•9 months ago

            Which specific city is ChatGPT getting its water from?

            Here’s a hint: there isn’t one, that’s referring to it’s overall usage, all around the world. It runs in Azure data centers where it is a tiny fraction of their overall compute load and water usage.

            • Flying Squid
              0•9 months ago

              Which comment do you want me to reply to?

                • Flying Squid
                  0•9 months ago

                  The only thing that is clear is that you seem to think you’re entitled to multiple responses when you reply to a single post of mine multiple times.

                  That… and the fact that you aren’t denying that you believe corporations should be expected to do whatever they want as long as no one makes it illegal.

            • Flying Squid
              0•9 months ago

              Ah, got it, companies can do as much ecological damage at they want to and it’s the regulators fault if nothing is done about it. Also, people shouldn’t get mad at corporations for wanting to do that ecological damage just because they’re allowed to.

              • @[email protected]English
                1•9 months ago

                Why arent you mad at video games? Are you protesting Nintendo and Sony? Their consoles consume far more power than ChatGPT.

                • Flying Squid
                  0•9 months ago

                  Which comment do you want me to reply to?

                  • @[email protected]English
                    1•9 months ago

                    Since apparently it wasn’t clear, I was referring to the comment two above this one in the chain.