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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Evan Prodromou Mar 13

@timbray computer usage just isn't as carbon intensive a process as driving a car. Even with hundreds of billions being spent on new data centres, it's not a big part of the global emissions profile.

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lucindacatchlove.bsky.social

Yeah, the water usage is a far bigger problem with data centers on the environmental front. It is almost like the energy use drama is intended as a diversion from the real issue, our very real global water crisis. But there's also stuff like Elon illegally using gas generators.