• mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    5 months ago

    AI isn’t yet slurping any significantly obscene amount of power from the grid, although as it gets more ubiquitous that will surely change. The individual data centers are massive things but they are outnumbered by orders of magnitude by all the rest of it

    The big villain in senseless datacenter power usage is cryptocurrency

    Plus most of the rest of it, of course, acres of racks burning through the world’s resources to run the world’s ten millionth pink slime news factory or Youtube click fakery cluster, or whatever

    But AI isn’t yet adding its useless weight to the groaning pile in any significant way

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        5 months ago

        This is a pretty good article about it, with this being the relevant graph:

        Like I say, it’s going to become a significant thing, and I’m sure for the tiny fraction of all the world’s data centers that are operated by Microsoft specifically it already is, but it isn’t yet, on a global scale.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            5 months ago

            Not really. The primary sources for the chart are actually in the image, and there’s a link in the Verge article if you’re able to read academic papers.

                • Specal@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  The verge put out a really terrible PC building guide about 5 years ago which hurt their reputation. So the joke is just that the verge isn’t trust worthy.

                  But that was 5 years ago and they corrected their mistakes since.

                  • kboy101222
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                    5 months ago

                    And when this guy says terrible, they basically put out a video where they did everything wrong to an almost impressive degree

        • greenskye@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Fair, but it’s pretty much on track to be the new crypto of energy usage. We’re just a few years out for it to get fully ramped up

      • iopq@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        In other words, 17 million households can all turn off the AC when they are not home and the savings can run like 100 chatGPTs

      • NostraDavid@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        Doing a rough comparison: 500k KWh * 365 / 240 billion KWh= ChatGPT uses ~0.076% of the power that Crypto uses.

        Just to put Crypto into perspective.

        PS: The 500k is from the article (which states it’s per day), and the 240 billion for crypto is the first result I saw from Google, so take with a grain of salt.

        edit: I only just now saw which space (?) this is from. Please don’t bully me, I’m only here for the discussion (which so far has been civil).

    • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      it’s also completely useless, and even it’s hyped up by the same people who sticked around crypto when it was a thing

      • maniclucky@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It’s not completely useless, it just not the silver fucking bullet that the cryptobros promised it was. It can do a lot of cool shit, but we keep trying to make it do things it’s really not equipped to do.

        • Kecessa
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          5 months ago

          They’re talking about “AI”, not crypto, the crypto bros part of their comment is about it being the same people that jumped on the crypto wagon and defend the energy waste.

          • maniclucky@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I was using cryptobros as a proxy for the people that hyped AI. I feel like that venn diagram is a circle.

              • maniclucky@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                And if I use “I feel” instead of a more concrete assertion, it’s clear from context that I don’t have any data to back that up off hand and am implicitly making a wider assertion that the people they hyped crypto are the same or akin to the people who are hyping AI.

                Feel free to disprove me.

                • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Not on me to disprove your, cough… argument…cough.

                  Learn how standards of evidence work. “I feel” you got some reading to do.

                  • maniclucky@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    Wasn’t an argument. It was an anecdote. I feel there is insubstantial difference in character and behavior between crypto bros and ai hype people. Given that we are discussing large populations, overlap will occur. It has been my experience that they are generally the same people.

                    Thus “I feel” instead of some kind of demographic analysis. If you are offended by this, maybe don’t associate with willfully uninformed grifters and their victims.

      • Specal@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I love this mindset. It’s so regressive, it’s like watching old people form

        • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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          5 months ago

          for the “value” it provides (automated spam, new wave of deepfakes and tailor made propaganda, facilitating layoffs with genai as a failed replacement, and most importantly of all hyping openai stock) any amount of resources spent is a massive waste

          • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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            5 months ago

            Eh. I’ve built multiple apps in very short succession thanks to GPT. I don’t really care if people think it’s useful or not, I know it is.

              • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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                5 months ago

                While I appreciate how much you must have looked into my profile to find that, I was actually referring to the startup I worked at in South Korea for half a year. The impact I landed there paved the way for me to get my current job at Meta.

                (RuneScape bots are something I write on the weekend to wind down from work)

                • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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                  5 months ago

                  Who exactly is replenishing their storefront shelves in this conversation? And with profiles?

                  You should probably start asking ChatGPT to proofread your comments, too.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I’ve built multiple apps in very short succession thanks to GPT

              You’re being made obsolete by your own tool and you don’t even realize it.

              • Specal@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                It’s so far off being able to make software, it’s smart but will never be that smart… Well if it does we’re all done for.

                It’s a fantastic tool for getting a layout for your code however.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  How far off is it from being able to make code well enough that your immediate manager, with basic coding skills, can just do it? Because that’s going to happen to a lot of people and soon.

                  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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                    5 months ago

                    So there’s two arguments happening here; one that ChatGPT is so good that it’ll replace us, and one that it’s terrible and has no usecase. The truth is somewhere in the middle (but I do look forwards to the day it’s the latter)

                  • Specal@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    Considering I already make tools for people to automate parts of their jobs, and they still struggle. I am not worried at all about that.

                  • Specal@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    But another thing to consider as well, what’s the point in this whole society thing if we’re not working towards… Not forcing future generations to work.

                    We already know there isn’t going to be enough work for everyone, the problem isn’t AI it’s politics.

          • Specal@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Mate you’re babbling like an old man too. Spam has been automated for a long time. Deepfakes are indeed a problem I agree, but again Photoshop has existed for a long time. Tailor made propaganda has existed as long as civilization has existed. Companies in tech space hand their staff layoffs and hiring in cycles, AI was just the latest excuse. And OpenAI isn’t even publicly traded.

            Stop talking shit and touch grass.

    • explodicle
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      5 months ago

      Rather than merely wagging the finger at each weekly villain, we should work towards policy that internalizes the cost of energy.