Do you worry about the environmental impact of AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems promise to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, including climate change. However, it’s also becoming clear that they’re part of the problem themselves – notably because the machines which power them need huge amounts of energy and natural resources.
And as large AI models, like those behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, get increasingly complex and expensive, these environmental problems are likely to grow.
Do such considerations influence your use of such tools? How? And what solutions would you propose to tackle the problem?
Let us know your thoughts in the debate below!
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What’s the environmental cost of Switzerland’s new supercomputer?
AI has potential to be very energy intensive. I read that cryptocurrencies worldwide consume as much energy as Switzerland. Large Ai and data centers can use much resources. Smoothing down AI and models is the solution, like all other industries care about lower environmental impact and efficiency.
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I agree with others sadness, that AI is mostly used for entertainment and trivia, not for solving important problems. Probably it is too prone to mistakes to trust it in eg medicine yet.
Yes it is for now but Peter b is right not to worry if we use the infinite nuclear power and AI to solve problems and not to play games.
Si per ora è così ma ha ragione Peter b a non preoccuparsi se useremo l'infinita energia nucleare e l'IA per risolvere problemi e non per giocare.
The current impact has been caused by explosive growth over the past two years. This growth is not sustainable in the medium to long term. Less energy-intensive systems are already being developed. So there is not much to worry about.
L'impatto attuale è stato causato da un sviluppo esplosivo in questi ultimi due anni. Tale crescita non è sostenibile a medio-lungo termine. Si stanno gia sviluppando sistemi meno golosi in energia. Quindi non c'è molto da preoccuparsi.
No, I do not worry about AI. I have used it and through a variety of questioned managed to change the answer from the programmed ones to the truth. AI can if it allowed to look at the array of knowledge and research can come up with technological truths which will turn around false directions of some governments being promoted by elites.
With regard to energy the only answer is nuclear energy -now with fission in standard reactors or small modular reactors (already operating in China and Russia and in the next year in USA). In the near future maybe 20-30 years there will endless energy from fusion. Nuclear power stations take up little area, give reliable high density power, are safe and cause little environmental impact. The waste of the present uranium based fission reactors will be the fuel for Thorium based reactors (small unit operating in China and full scale under construction. Swiss people should use AI to come to the truth about nuclear power.
Does anyone care about using the internet and smartphone, even if they are green climate activists or planet-savers? No.
So in the same vein, no one is going to care about the energy which AI demands to generate those Ai responses.
There are so much hyprocrisy in this world regarding those "do-gooders" that I cringe every day.
We must act quickly to democratise learning about this new technology and make it accessible to all levels of society, including the most modest.
This is essential to equip our community with the knowledge and skills to deal with any potential threat. Resisting innovation and technology will only hinder our progress and leave us behind in an ever-changing world.
On the contrary, it is imperative that we keep up to date and adopt a proactive stance with regard to these advances. This requires a continuous updating of our knowledge and a collective effort to integrate these innovations into our daily lives. Only by embracing these opportunities can we build a society that is better prepared, more resilient and able to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
It worries me (!) especially considering the very high costs and low benefits. Costs in the broadest sense, including water and electricity consumption as well as production. Cui prodest? What use is all this? To a few researchers and scientists and also to the whims of too many computer-freaks. We have always lived without all these electronic crutches that only atrophy our brains. It has already been shown that the average I.Q. in the world is now declining (!) after peaking just before the era of supercomputers. If this continues, we will soon no longer know how to calculate or write a text! We will therefore have to limit their construction, dissemination and use to the bare minimum necessary for scientific research and that's all.
Mi preoccupa eccome (!) soprattutto pensando ai costi altissimi e ai benefici scarsi . Costi nel senso più ampio, comprendendo i consumi di acqua e elettricità nonché di produzione. Cui prodest? A che serve tutto ciò? A pochi ricercatori e scienziati e anche ai capricci dei troppi computer-freaks. Siamo sempre vissuti senza tutte queste stampelle elettroniche che non fanno che atrofizzare il nostro cervello. Si è già dimostrato che il Q.I medio nel mondo sta ormai diminuendo (!) dopo aver raggiunto il suo picco poco prima dell'era dei supercalcolatori. Continuando così, ben presto non sapremo più né calcolare, né scrivere un testo! Bisognerà perciò limitarne la costruzione, la diffusione e l'uso per lo stretto necessario indispensabile alla ricerca scientifica e basta.
Poor benefits, decrease in average IQ ??? All to be proven!
Benefici scarsi, diminuzione del QI medio ??? Tutto da dimostrare !
AI is poison to our societies and the British inventor knew this already 30 years ago...yet continued to work on it. Now he warns us...a bit too late, eh?
AI was not developed by a single inventor in 1995. Many scientists have developed AI techniques since the 1950s and after. It is true that one of the developers of neural networks expressed disquiet. But this is not the case with his colleagues. In short, those who call for more education and information on what AI is are right. Ignorance is very great.
L'IA non è stata svilippata da un unico inventore nel 1995. Molti scienzati hanno sviluppato tecniche di AI dagli anni 1950 e dopo. E vero che uno degli sviluppatore delle rette neuronale ha espresso inquietudine. Ma non è il caso dei suoi colleghi. Insomma ha ragione chi chiede più formazione ed informazione su cosa è l'IA. L'ignoranza è molto grande.
I think the only way to use AI is to also consider how to reduce the environmental impact that occurs when using it. I do not think it is practical to stop this useful tool.
私はAIを使う場合に起こる環境負荷をどのように低減するかも考えながら利用するしかないと思います。この便利なツールを止めることは現実的ではないと考えます。
'useful' for whom? for no longer being able to reason or write? but that's it!
"utile" per chi? per non più saper né ragionare, né scrivere? ma anche basta!
A bit like saying that since they invented the calculator there are no more mathematicians because they can no longer calculate...
Meh
Un po' come dire che da quando hanno inventato la calcolatrice non esistono più i matematici perché non sanno più calcolare...
Meh
Soon I believe all this knowledge will become an AI take over, original and genuine chat or script will be over ridden by programing that takes over human interaction which leaves the hunan race, where?.
I agree with all the comments, whom does this technology benefit?
This technology does not seem to be a lighter foot step on the environment.
I work as an interpreter and national interpreting guide. While this will be more convenient for us, I fear that it will negatively affect our work.
私は通訳・全国通訳案内士の仕事を生業としています。我々にとっても便利になる一方で、我々の仕事にもマイナスになりはしないか心配しています。
Of course: we will become more and more ignorant slaves of A.I.!
Ovvio: diverremo sempre più schiavi ignoranti dell' I.A !
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