I think, like most people, I'm hesitant about AI because of the climate impacts of the data centers used to train and maintain it. There just seem to be few applications where AI (which is a broad term and I think we're really talking about Large Language Models) is Better than existing tools.
I fully concur-- the emissions of AI operations are worrying and ought to be optimized if the tech is here to stay; and I think they will be especially as new forms of energy production emerge (hydrogen, fusion) , and old ones re-emerge (nuclear). Not a fan of Google buying nuclear plants to train their models -- technofeudalism par excellence-- but I do see where they are coming from, given that the new arms race is towards AGI. Also Google outsourcing its climate adaptation to AI is baloney. I also believe that rejecting the use of AI/LLMs/Neural Networks (and down the line AGI) based purely on the tech's emissions is foolish. If we discount AI's utility based on emissions only, there are many other things we should rally together against instead of AI ( its capacity to empower billions of people do do more with less is remarkable) --- particularly the lavish and luxurious lives of centimillionaires /billionaires.
I think, like most people, I'm hesitant about AI because of the climate impacts of the data centers used to train and maintain it. There just seem to be few applications where AI (which is a broad term and I think we're really talking about Large Language Models) is Better than existing tools.
I fully concur-- the emissions of AI operations are worrying and ought to be optimized if the tech is here to stay; and I think they will be especially as new forms of energy production emerge (hydrogen, fusion) , and old ones re-emerge (nuclear). Not a fan of Google buying nuclear plants to train their models -- technofeudalism par excellence-- but I do see where they are coming from, given that the new arms race is towards AGI. Also Google outsourcing its climate adaptation to AI is baloney. I also believe that rejecting the use of AI/LLMs/Neural Networks (and down the line AGI) based purely on the tech's emissions is foolish. If we discount AI's utility based on emissions only, there are many other things we should rally together against instead of AI ( its capacity to empower billions of people do do more with less is remarkable) --- particularly the lavish and luxurious lives of centimillionaires /billionaires.