• Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    Could someone give me examples about fields where the AI is already useful?

    Because right now it looks like the answer to a question no one asked.

    I could see how it could be useful for NOC in videogames or as an assistant, but if it involves wasting so much energy, I don’t see the point.

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      or as an assistant

      Is there any field where an assistant is worthless? I find GitHub CoPilot almost indispensable and soon equivalents will be available for nearly any industry.

      Mostly though, I reject the idea that AI is a massive burden on our energy grid. It’s well under 1% of global energy consumption right now and I don’t see that changing. Yes, it’s going up, but other things are going up too.

      For example cars are getting bigger and heavier, which means they use more energy. More and more people around the world are heating/cooling their home to make it comfortable instead of just liveable - drastically increasing energy consumption. We build homes with concrete instead of timber. We’re using more and more concrete worldwide… and concrete makes up something like eight percent of global energy consumption now (and growing).

      We need to produce more energy. There’s no way around it.

      • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        That’s where I can’t agree with you. I’d say we need to produce the same amount of energy while trying to have more efficient devices.

        That’s also why I’m asking what AI could bring to humanity. If it brings us ways to save energy and have enough food for a growing population, then I’d consider it. But for now, from what I know, it’s just creating a new need when we are already consuming way too much and destroying our planet.

        Instead of creating new needs, we should try to live with less, while still enjoying life.

        Cars getting bigger and heavier is clearly true, but they are also consuming less (at least for ICE cars) than before. My Seat Leon Cupra is drinking way less fuel than my old Audi S4 Avant while being more spacious inside. I’m also sure that at one point we’re gonna start having smaller and more efficient electric cars because not everyone wants a huge SUV.

  • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Seems like ai companies should take some of that investor cash and build up their own power supply. Maybe they can be the ones to use the small, modular nuclear power stations I’ve heard a little about. Or go bananas on solar and various energy storage solutions.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Electricity supply is becoming the latest chokepoint to threaten the growth of artificial intelligence, according to leading tech industry chiefs, as power-hungry data centers add to the strain on grids around the world.

    Amazon, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet are investing billions of dollars in computing infrastructure as they seek to build out their AI capabilities, including in data centers that typically take several years to plan and construct.

    But some of the most popular places for building the facilities, such as northern Virginia, are facing capacity constraints which, in turn, are driving a search for suitable sites in growing data center markets globally.

    At present, “we probably don’t have enough capacity available” to run all the facilities that will be required globally by 2030, said Sharma, whose unit is working with chipmaker Nvidia to design centers optimized for AI workloads.

    In October, the company said in filings to a Virginia regulator that it was experiencing “significant load growth due to data center development” and that growing power demands presented a “challenge.”

    In response to the demand, authorities in jurisdictions including Ireland and the Netherlands have sought to limit new data center developments, while Singapore recently lifted a moratorium.


    The original article contains 867 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • Solemarc@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I guess that’s meant to be 2025 since the graph is projected? Pretty funky screw up though.

  • maryjayjay@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Maybe we can ask ai how to make more power so there can be more ai. But then, when it tells us, we just mine more crypto. Fuck ai. Crypto won’t murder us.