Anonymous evilandgay 8w

i am not super educated on this topic so i could be wrong, but my basic understanding of it is that queries put into a search engine take an incredibly small fraction of the resources required to process a query input to an AI model, because of the difference in how each system sorts and categorizes words, and then a search engine also just brings up links on a keyword basis while the AI actually generates a response, which further depletes resources.

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Anonymous #2 8w

the point is that many inputs to something without AI would still use fewer resources than one or two inputs to an AI system

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Anonymous #2 8w

right, less bad, but still bad is my point. people have been doing detrimental harm to the environment since industrialization, and genz has part taken in the massive problem for their entire lives, yet it's only now that they're becoming aware, and only with ai it seems. these data centers are gross but there is progress on sustainability, and so while something is being done, we're still crapping in gallons of clean water, leaving our lights on, driving to work and buying tons of plastic.

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Anonymous evilandgay 8w

fyi i'm not for non-localized ai. i dont use it. but it doesn't come from my concern with the environment as much as it does from an ethical issue with the industry. i hate that these data centers are speeding up climate change, but sustainability is in works, and eventually this bubble will pop; we don't have the infrastructure to support this industry, and it's proven to not be lucrative in the slightest.

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Anonymous evilandgay 8w

lastly, before ppl who can't read between the lines get mad at me, yes, this is a fuck ai standpoint. fuck ai

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Anonymous evilandgay 8w

Data centers in general do suck, but the internet as a whole has so much more benefit than specifically gen AI. People don’t want datacenters of any kind in their hometowns, but depending on what they do, they have a very different impact. Most of the largest components of our modern internet are comparatively far more efficient. Many companies share the use of their facilities to get the most out of the hardware and power as possible while communicating with as much of the world as possible.

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Anonymous #3 8w

the main difference with these newer AI data centers is that giant companies are taking a billion dollars and plopping one down somewhere basically overnight, with minimal oversight or input from locals. They singlehandedly provide enough “need” for more electrical infrastructure for everyone’s electricity prices to rise. People aren’t saying not to use AI because a single query has any quantifiable individual impact, they mostly say it because they don’t want these companies to build more

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Anonymous #3 8w

thank you!

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Anonymous #3 8w

Cutting down our internet use certainly wouldn’t be bad, but the things that make up most of the internet are already there. Using your computer a bit less will impact your own power bill more than it’ll impact all of the other infrastructure that makes that happen, pretty much no matter what you’re doing.

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