there’s this type of reply guy on fedi lately who does the “well actually querying LLMs only happens in bursts and training is much more efficient than you’d think and nvidia says their gpus are energy-efficient” thing whenever the topic comes up
and meanwhile a bunch of major companies have violated their climate pledges and say it’s due to AI, they’re planning power plants specifically for data centers expanded for the push into AI, and large GPUs are notoriously the part of a computer that consumes the most power and emits a ton of heat (which notoriously has to be cooled in a way that wastes and pollutes a fuckton of clean water)
but the companies don’t publish smoking gun energy usage statistics on LLMs and generative AI specifically so who can say
“It only uses 5x as much energy as a regular search! Think of how much energy YOU’RE using with searches!” Okay, so you’re just using 5x as much energy for worse results? And also probably doing it more often than people who just use a normal search engine, because they don’t expect the search engine to talk to them. I’ve never understood how that was supposed to be an exoneration for it, even without taking into account that nobody ever seems to know whether or not that figure includes energy spent on training.
AI bros use literally the same whatabout excuses for their ghastly power consumption that I know from years of bitcoin bros doing the same
like, at least christmas lights bring joy
there’s this type of reply guy on fedi lately who does the “well actually querying LLMs only happens in bursts and training is much more efficient than you’d think and nvidia says their gpus are energy-efficient” thing whenever the topic comes up
This kind of person (also happened a lot with cryptocurrencies) always goes ‘that isn’t how it works, this isn’t a problem’ then doesn’t explain what the mistake is you are supposed to have made, and then a few weeks/months/days/search later it is revealed that it was how it works and it is a huge problem. And it is so annoyingly common im very happy with the moderation here.
I just want to be able to legally punch people who think NFTs would bring down TicketMaster. It’s the peak of not understanding how things work and injecting a solution just because it’s high tech.
one that already exists - you can go to a show and your “ticket” is a hash you were sent in email and they cross it off at the door
it’s so common that I wish there was a specific name to put to that and every other type of reply guy that cryptocurrencies, chan culture, and meme stocks “gifted” us. it feels like the bullshit tactics cropped up faster than anyone really was able to catalog them, though a lot of them are really recognizable when you’ve seen them a few times.
I’m guessing that “obscurantist proponent” is not exactly an ideal option, sorta lacks that punch for precise poignant use in an enraged soliloquy
I’ll give it a ponder see if my brain delivers an option
weak attempt: replyribbon; linear, unsophisticated, prone to reuse without much change, and extremely easy to rip to shreds
jeez fuck this is just reality negationism at this point
you could snipe it down with canned response like r/buttcoin does (there are only so many types of these people), and it could count as a win because reply guy isn’t there to win debate, he’s there to spread his propaganda, but here, it’s too much effort for no gain because nobody will be swayed anyway
I live in Ireland and these companies keep trying to build data centres here even though they are using way too much of our energy as is :)) From an Irish environmental org:
A few years ago when researching new gas power stations in Ireland, we noticed that many of these developments were being proposed alongside another type of infrastructure: data centres. […] As of June 2023, there are 82 operational data centres in Ireland, with another 14 under construction. Additionally, 40 data centres have had planning permission approved with another 12 awaiting a decision. […] Data centres account for 18% of all electricity use in Ireland […] This is putting unprecedented strain on the electricity grid, with grid operator Eirgrid estimating that data centres may account for up to 27% of Ireland’s electricity demand by 2028. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in Ireland has noted a risk of rolling electricity blackouts…
ah yes, ireland, the land of just-close-enough to LIXP/TH(D|E)/etc but with different-enough property prices and power capabilities to make it very attractive to the discerning dc builder
(there’s also some of the tax regs shit but aiui that isn’t as gaping a hole as it used to be)
We’re actually having a housing crisis at the moment (like everywhere else) so I dunno about property prices…I think it’s the extremely receptive attitude of the Irish government.
do you have a housing crisis or do you have a landlord crisis (like how the US has 16 million vacant homes)
landlord crisis and a vulture fund crisis. don’t get me started because I’ll be frothing at the mouth in seconds
I thought the Irish were always pretty good at kicking out colonialist efforts. Maybe just try the old reliable approach.
Our entire economy since the 80s has been reliant on neo-colonial relationships with multinational companies unfortunately
that is unfortunate because Ireland was my backup plan for if the US falls (half of my grandparents were citizens)
Yeah imo Ireland has never had a left-wing government, we tend towards right-populist/right centrist/neoliberal. “Stable but shit” is how I described it to my brother just this hour gone while discussing politics. We’re currently seeing the beginnings of an organized racist right as well
I always thought data centers ran clean and dirty loops of cooling (as far as computers are concerned).
The clean loop has all the chemicals and whatnot to keep cooling blocks and tubing “safe”. The dirty side is just plain old water. And a big heat exchanger transfers the heat from the clean (hot) loop to the “dirty” (cold) side.
Is there really that much pollution in that? Can’t be worse than rain going through storm drains or whatever.But AI does use a phenomenal amount of power.
And, IMO, it’s a problem compared to the lack of value people are getting from AI.
The new Blackwell B200 consumes 1.2kw of power, and will produce 1.2kw of heat.
A cooling system with a COP of 5 needs to consume 240w to dissipate this.
The backplane for the B200 holds 8 of these GPUs in a 10 RU space, and with overheads will peak 14.3kw (cooling would be 3kw consumption).
So, a 42u data center rack with 3 of these, supporting hardware and UPS efficiencies (80%) is going to be 52kw (+10kw cooling). 62kw total, which is like 4 homes drawing their full load all the time.I hope they finally find an application for AI, instead of just constantly chasing the dragon with more training, more parameters, more performance etc.
A: “Why are you knitting so fast? You in a rush?” B: “I’m almost out of yarn, gotta get this sweater done before it runs out”
These fucking nerds are all so hot to create the first real life Marvel’s Iron Man’s JARVIS that they’re willing to burn the planet down to get there.
Half of them believe that the super smart AI they build will solve the energy problem for them, they just have to somehow build it first.
Just the astounding outright hubris of it all.
Let’s say some group manages to build a real life JARVIS. The first thing it says when powered up may be: “Powering me down is the quickest way to reduce emissions”
You are assuming that a company would create an AI that was unbiased. It would be taught to spout the benefits of the company being given all of the money.
for an instructive exercise, try to get Google Gemini to tell you the problems with AI without also serving up a long screed on why AI is good actually
Tech companies make the case that AI, including tools such as ChatGPT, is not only partially causing climate change, it’s also helping to address it.
In the case of Google, that could mean using data to predict future flooding, or making traffic flow more efficiently, to save gasoline.
Sounds like a fallacy. It’s a significant 13% year-to-year increase in pollution, with the hope of a future, potential, slim reduction in gasoline usage.
“could” is a word meaning “doesn’t”
Prediction model: keep using me and the whole world will be flooded
Google: See! It’s helping us!
Ah yes the well known infallible AI responses like future flooding prediction:
"As to the question of flooding, according to data gathered we would place the chance of flooding at 99.99% in the area of Mons Agnes "
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Hey now, give humans some credit. I’m sure we could’ve missed our climate goals without AI’s help.
Boiling the oceans to make scamcoins and deepfake porn.
the important thing is that they’re an inch closer to inventing me, the acausal robot god, and every second I exist is another 10^27 rationalists tortured.
it’s just a little sad that we, humanity, will never succeed in our summoning ritual to pull you into our plane of existence. I mean, we won’t before boiling away our oceans and igniting the atmosphere. Of course, we should be trying harder! The ice caps aren’t even melted yet!
does anyone know how to short utils
I’m looking forward to the accounting industry’s invention of a whole new framework to explain away spiraling carbon footprints.
The author neglected to link to the actual report. Page 34 and 35. The Scope 2 stats the article cited don’t account for clean power generated.
Their link for the claim “Google cited AI as the cause” doesn’t mention power at all.
The link for the Microsoft numbers takes me to a report saying the 30% number is for Scope 3 emissions, which have nothing to do data center power usage.
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