Generative artificial intelligence uses massive amounts of energy for computation and data storage and billions of gallons of water to cool the equipment at data centers. Now, legislators and regulators — in the U.S. and the EU — are starting to demand accountability.

A.I. use is directly responsible for carbon emissions from non-renewable electricity and for the consumption of millions of gallons of fresh water, and it indirectly boosts impacts from building and maintaining the power-hungry equipment on which A.I. runs.

As tech companies seek to embed high-intensity A.I. into everything from resume-writing to kidney transplant medicine and from choosing dog food to climate modeling, they cite many ways A.I. could help reduce humanity’s environmental footprint. But legislators, regulators, activists, and international organizations now want to make sure the benefits aren’t outweighed by A.I.’s mounting hazards.

    • BroBot9000@lemmy.worldEnglish
      92·
      9 months ago

      If only we could pass green energy laws and ban fossil fuels.

      Nobody complaining about how much energy google or Facebook servers are taking.

      Nobody complaining about how much energy 24 lights at a bank use, or how much power billboard ads consume.

      No, the way we generate electricity is only an issue when it comes to powering AI and cryptocurrency. Then it’s a massive waste and bad for the environment. Fucking hypocrites.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Here’s an interesting article about that. The gist of it being that the first thing someone might think of, a cryptocurrency or token powered by AI, is probably a really stupid idea, but other ways of combining them could be good.

  • HubertManne@kbin.social
    31·
    9 months ago

    im torn. its not totally useless like bitcoin esq implementations but likely a lot of it is unnecessary but we likely won’t find worthwhile uses without using it.

    • Pennomi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      9 months ago

      We’re still finding out how to do AI efficiently. We’ll almost certainly see that power usage go down once the technology stabilizes. Even in the last year we’ve seen great strides in that area.