So I did some more research, and evidently if you’re going to use AI at all, you’re probably increasing your energy usage by using it offline if you use it often (unless you are using renewables), since the data centers generally have cards specifically designed for AI. I think it might just be a case of everyone needs to use it significantly less, it’s like if 4k gaming was something the average joe was doing. If everyone was doing that 10 hours a day, we would have a big problem.
It’s kinda like saying it’s not immoral to go for a pleasure drive, but if you’re driving around 10 hours a day that’s probably not good and you should minimize it as much as you can.
That’s pretty interesting. And I totally agree with your last part. One counterpoint I would have is that local models are often more efficient though, and there’s very little checking you can do on how much your query actually costs in the cloud, while using it at home you can monitor your GPU usage and your power bill, and that information creates a sense of responsibility if you overuse it, like the amount of gas station stops a 10 hour joyride would require. But yeah at the end of the day using it as little as possible is a good habit.
So I did some more research, and evidently if you’re going to use AI at all, you’re probably increasing your energy usage by using it offline if you use it often (unless you are using renewables), since the data centers generally have cards specifically designed for AI. I think it might just be a case of everyone needs to use it significantly less, it’s like if 4k gaming was something the average joe was doing. If everyone was doing that 10 hours a day, we would have a big problem.
It’s kinda like saying it’s not immoral to go for a pleasure drive, but if you’re driving around 10 hours a day that’s probably not good and you should minimize it as much as you can.
That’s pretty interesting. And I totally agree with your last part. One counterpoint I would have is that local models are often more efficient though, and there’s very little checking you can do on how much your query actually costs in the cloud, while using it at home you can monitor your GPU usage and your power bill, and that information creates a sense of responsibility if you overuse it, like the amount of gas station stops a 10 hour joyride would require. But yeah at the end of the day using it as little as possible is a good habit.