• melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Eco-terrorists do your thing. No one else will stop this stupid forward momentum on AI as it needs to suck in huge resources just so some dipshit can request porn comics.

    • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I actually think the market will beat them too it. Between Sora being taken out behind the barn, the laundry list of layoffs that indicate these companies are getting high off their own supply, and lastly the very real realization that all this “investment” is a massive billion dollar circle jerk.

      It looks too bubbly to me, we can only hope the pop happens fast enough that these companies cant cannabalize eachother, but thats wishful thinking.

    • kersplomp@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      Please people, you need to stop spreading this misinformation.

      AI is not killing the environment. If you track the sources of these claims, you will find that they first were spread by McKinsey and Bloomberg, who have a vested interest in publicly traded oil companies and other polluting corporations. They love to spread this misinformation because it distracts from the REAL environmental harms being caused by fossil fuels, meat farming, and concrete production. See drawdown.org for the specific numbers.

      We need to stay focused on climate change and not get distracted. Our efforts should be focused on stopping new coal plants and factory farms. Datacenters, and especially the one in indianapolis which wouldn’t even have used water for cooling, have minimal environmental impact compared to trump’s coal, oil, and farming policies which will kill tens of millions in the long run and have already sparked wars.

      We can fix climate change. We were so close to replacing fossil fuels that oil companies got scared; we can’t afford to give up at the last mile.

      • jtrek@startrek.website
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        2 days ago

        The opportunity cost for AI is pretty high. That’s a lot of resources spent on something that’s bad for the world, even if it’s not specifically the worst for climate change reasons in a first order sense.

        • kersplomp@piefed.blahaj.zone
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          1 day ago

          And you as a commenter have an opportunity cost too. You could be spending your time raising money for PETA or Oxfam, or researching climate change, or commenting about the effects of factory farms, but instead you’re just griping about the current popular thing to gripe about.

          I donate 100% of my salary (I’m retired but still work) to fighting income inequality, climate change, animal abuse, and transphobia. It’s so frustrating to see people waste their time hating on things they don’t even understand just to fit in. Maybe this doesn’t describe everyone commenting, but if it does maybe they should get off their high horse. Sometimes the best thing a person can do for the world is shut up and give space for an actual expert to talk.

          • jtrek@startrek.website
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            20 hours ago

            I really don’t think the billions of dollars spent on AI is equivalent or at all analogous to the time I spend posting on the toilet or while waiting for things to happen at work.

            • kersplomp@piefed.blahaj.zone
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              16 hours ago

              Honest question, you used the word opportunity cost, but do you not understand what that is? With an opportunity cost, you compare two possible actions that you can take. It doesn’t make sense to compare your action (supporting those that propagate misinformation) to the actions of an entire economy (investing in ai infrastructure), because the actor is not the same in both.

              With an opportunity cost, you can only compare the actions that you can take, and you alone. I listed a few comparable actions in my previous comment: research climate change, research the climate effects of ai, post about factory farms, read up on solar, invite others to donate money to clean water causes. These can all be done on the toilet. Any of these is a better use of your time than joining a mob of people against a cause you don’t even fully understand.

              • jtrek@startrek.website
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                15 hours ago

                There is opportunity cost of Microsoft et al investing billions in AI instead of doing anything else. That money could have been spent on renewable energy research, improving efficiency of existing hardware, supporting work from home to reduce commuting, whatever. Those opportunities are lost because they went with AI instead.

                I didn’t mean my opportunity cost from the toilet.

                AI is a poor use of limited resources and opportunity.