Controversial - the place to discuss controversial topics

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Controversial - the community to discuss controversial topics.

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Hastur@sh.itjust.works

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AI is not bad for the environment in comparison with many other regular activities. (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by AnonomousWolf@lemmy.world to c/controversial@sh.itjust.works

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People on Lemmy love to cry AI IS BURNING THE PLANNET but have they ever really looked at the numbers?

1 kg Beef = 60kg CO2 - source
1000km Return flight = 314kg CO2 - source
1 Bitcoin transaction = 645kg of CO2 - source
1000 AI prompts = 3kg of CO2 - source including training

I'm a strong advocate for privacy, and I myself am Anti generative AI in many ways, but can we please stop shouting that AI IS BRUNING THE PLANNET, it weakens our position to push back at actual issues with AI like privacy.

Here is a detailed breakdown debunking that AI is destroying the planet: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about

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[–] Pencilnoob@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

I would be curious to compare that to Google search. Some experts estimate Google search and the time spent reviewing the results on your device can be 3-10g of Co2. The Google part alone is maybe .2g per search.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90171268/internet_impact_visualized

Here they estimated in 2018 that just rendering front page cost 300 tons a minute, so 432,000 tons a day. Just for the front page.

Just to put it in perspective that the Internet itself is not free. It's expensive to power sending all this data around!