Mastodawn

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@evan/115580076628853324

This was posted 4 months ago, i.e. forever in LLM time. I would really like to see a fully-worked through analysis of the actual GHG cost of #GenAI in general and for coding applications specifically. Including, obviously, training, data centre infrastructure, silicon fabrication, etc.

The reason: I have trouble reconciling these numbers with the insane volumes of investment capital going into the space.

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Evan Prodromou Mar 13

@timbray my previous job was building greenhouse gas inventories.

Data centres are responsible for about 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. AI is responsible for about 15% of the data centre emissions, or about 0.15% of global emissions.

People who talk about AI burning up the planet don't spend a lot of time thinking about what's really burning up the planet: fossil fuels for transportation and heating, deforestation, and cattle.

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blturner Mar 13

@evan @timbray numbers are pointless without sources?

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dr2chase

@ben @evan @timbray you can start here to make estimates on bounds: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks

Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks | US EPA

The national greenhouse gas inventory is developed each year to track trends in U.S. emissions and removals. Find emissions by source, economic sector and greenhouse gas.

US EPA