r/Anticonsumption • u/Sad_Butterscotch7063 • 2d ago

Discussion Does anyone avoid using ChatGPT because of its water usage?

Hey, I recently came across something about how using ChatGPT, Blackbox AI and similar AI tools actually consumes a surprising amount of water (cooling data centers, I guess). Made me wonder, have people here stopped or reduced using it because of that?

Curious how others are thinking about it in terms of sustainability and personal impact.

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u/chemicalysmic 2d ago

I refuse to use GPT for a whole bunch of reasons- the water usage is just one of them.

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u/mossy-sun-witch 2d ago

Exactly, never really started it anyway

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hitching onto this comment here, asking AI one question uses 2-5Wh of energy (7200-18,000J).

That is a pretty substantial number. But the most egregious use of power is HVAC. This is equivalent to running a house HVAC for 6 seconds.

If you care about the environment, please be mindful of your air conditioning this summer! Take advantage of natural airflow/cooling as much as you can! It’s good for your wallet and the environment

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u/delfV 2d ago

Training models is what consumes the most power, not using them. Also it varies between models and conversation length so 2-5Wh is a big simplification IMHO

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago edited 2d ago

Training the models takes the bulk of the power, but I don’t really see us stopping training AI anytime soon.

I just wanted to hitch on and make sure people were aware of what the biggest use of power is, and how they can reduce it. HVAC, and vehicle use should be minimized to the greatest extent possible to save the environment.

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u/whatsasimba 2d ago

And isn't using free AI just helping to train it?

All these people think it's great for streamlining their work. Why would you train your replacement?

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u/DallMit 2d ago

Why do you write like AI bro 😭

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u/bondagepixie 2d ago

I've been told I sound like AI too. Turns out I'm autistic? Woulda been nice to know 20 years ago

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u/TemperatureTop246 2d ago

LOL same here - I got accused of plagiarism in high school back in the late 80's.. I had to sit and write an essay by hand in front of the teacher to prove that it really WAS how I wrote... I have learned to dial it back over the years, but I can still sound like that.

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u/chaseinger 2d ago edited 2d ago

it's called human speech. when people communicate with each other they use words within sentences. it's what ai tries to mimic.

some use letter combinations like bro, and tiny images of yellow faces. others use language. some even, but i only have heard of that, use capital letters.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago

does this sound like something AI would say?

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u/TrollstuhlHagenLord 2d ago

the problem is... that sounds like something AI would say

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u/TemperatureTop246 2d ago

It's been removed.

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u/vjnkl 2d ago

Thanks chatgpt!

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u/MastersKitten31 2d ago

I will mention about HVAC for people, I live in SoCal and have a disability that prevents me from regulating my body temp and I overheat frequently if it's over 78 outside. So for 4 mo out of the year I HAVE to have the ac going constantly 😭

I do have windows open etc when it's cold out (like today) but it's something a lot of ppl don't think about 🫂 not everyone is lucky enough to not use their ac 😭

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u/jorymil 6h ago

I don't think the OP's suggestion was directed your way, thankfully. More for the folks who like their houses at 65 in the middle of August, when 80 and some fans would be just fine and consume 1/10 the energy.

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u/MastersKitten31 5h ago

I know it wasn't directed specifically at me i was more just sharing as many judge me for the fact I have to use my ac etc so frequently. I wish I didn't medically need to but I have no choice.

I was simply sharing the info so people know that those situations exist and to give those people some grace vs telling us to "deal with it" when it can put our lives at risk 🫂

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u/mixtapecoat 2d ago

Living in Texas feels like a bad idea more and more each day 😂

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u/HistoryGirl23 2d ago

Yes! Hate it here.

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u/bananapanqueques 2d ago

I grew up in Houston w/o AC. I love TX but couldn't do that again.

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u/mixtapecoat 2d ago

That’s bananas

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u/smuckola 1d ago

it always has been!

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u/Mammoth-Pipe-5375 2d ago

Yeah, let me suffer all summer sweating my dick off so the billionaire class can continue to wreak havoc on the planet doing whatever they want.

I'm good.

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u/MyNameIsDaveToo 2d ago

I usually make the house colder at night, when there's less demand and the juice is cheaper. It helps me sleep better, but also the house takes a little longer to warm up in the morning.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago

Thermal energy storage. I like it.

If you want to go crazy on this route, you can use PCMs as thermal batteries to store cold from the night into the day.

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u/MyNameIsDaveToo 2d ago

What are PCMs?

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago

Phase change materials. They store a ton of heat at a given temperature. Think of how ice stays at 32F while it melts, but the whole time it “releases” cold.

Well it turns out you have other things that can solidify/melt closer to room temperature, and thus can be used to store heat/cold close to room temperature.

For example, some blends of paraffin melts at near 70F, so it will freeze when the house is cold, and absorb the heat from the room as it melts.

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u/MyNameIsDaveToo 2d ago

Interesting. But something tells me I'd need several 55gal drums of paraffin for it to really do anything useful.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago

One drum would carry 11kwhr based off of some napkin math.

Thats about 3 full hours of HVAC power draw.

That said, you’d rather need something with a large surface area to disperse heat with low temperature differences optimally. That or a fan running across it.

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u/MyNameIsDaveToo 1d ago

So you're saying we need to invent paraffin-doped drywall?

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u/Theslootwhisperer 2d ago

"We find that typical ChatGPT queries using GPT-4o likely consume roughly 0.3 watt-hours, which is ten times less than the older estimate. This difference comes from more efficient models and hardware compared to early 2023, and an overly pessimistic estimate of token counts in the original estimate."

https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-use#:~:text=A%20commonly%2Dcited%20claim%20is,much%20as%20a%20Google%20search.

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u/Intrepid-Landscape90 2d ago

okay well then i’m no better because I have POTS and can’t function in the heat so my ac stays on 73/74 in the summer

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u/Helldiver_of_Mars 2d ago

I never understood why consumers who use barely any of the resources or pollutions strive so hard to offset the megarich who are doing over 90% of it to be honest.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 1d ago

This is borderline disinformation.

There’s the one report that showed 100 companies are responsible for something like 70% of carbon emissions, but when you look at the companies it’s power companies and gas companies.

Sure, you can blame Exxon for selling you the gas, but at the end of the day they’re not just burning it for fun. Your choices do make an impact.

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u/Helldiver_of_Mars 20h ago

You're way over simplifying likely due to lack of comprehension.

A mansion or in most cases multiple plus business plus a fleet of cars plus private jets alone account for the discrepancy. Let alone the yatches that produce as much waste as entire cities.

The things you mentioning sure they produce a lot but we're talking about people not companies. Which is where you completely fall of the argument cause you entered assumptions territory.

It would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99 percent to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year.  

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-emit-much-planet-heating-pollution-two-thirds-humanity?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%, report says

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/richest-1-account-for-more-carbon-emissions-than-poorest-66-report-says

Richest 1% emit as much planet-heating pollution as two-thirds of humanity

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-emit-much-planet-heating-pollution-two-thirds-humanity

Billionaires spew more CO2 pollution in 90 minutes than average person in a lifetime

https://therealnews.com/billionaires-spew-more-co2-pollution-in-90-minutes-than-average-person-in-a-lifetime

There is nothing asbolutely nothing you can do at the bottom. You could as a senator enact laws. But it hardly has anything to purely due with Exxon. They have an effect sure but it's only part of the reason.

The biggest problem isn't their production it's their vast lobbying efforts for less safe and less clean production methods for more profit.

You're trying to dumb down a complex problem.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 19h ago

The data you gave me is accurate and correct, but irrelevant.

First, my claim above that we should reduce HVAC use is targeted towards an audience of average citizens in likely western countries. Predominately US, but I figure some Europeans also will see this as well. Reddits demographic is overwhelmingly westerners.

Your claim above is shifting the frame to global top 1%, which covers a lot of my target audience (above average income US citizens). A household income of 200k will land you here, which Id argue most of our audience wouldn’t consider “mega rich.”

You then claim there is nothing you can do at the bottom. I’m inclined to agree if we’re talking about the global poor, but that was clearly not what we’re implying above.

If you want to make a compelling case, tell me the CO2 emission of billionaires, and compare that to the other quintiles of US population in total quantities (not per capita). What you’ve given me above is frankly dishonest.

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u/Helldiver_of_Mars 16h ago edited 16h ago

This is my last one cause your stuck on being right rather than using any level of insight into the situation.

I get where you're coming from targeting HVAC usage among average Westerners seems like a reasonable approach, especially when Reddit's user base skews toward the U.S. and Europe. But the reason I pushed back with data is because your framing ignores a key part of the emissions puzzle. It's not that what you're suggesting is wrong, but that it misses the scale of impact based on income and wealth tiers even within your target audience.

You said my data was accurate but irrelevant, yet it's actually central to the point. Many Redditors especially those in the U.S. with stable jobs in tech, finance, etc. fall into the global top 10%, and often even the top 1% by income. According to Oxfam, the richest 1% globally were responsible for 16% of all carbon emissions in 2019, more than all car and road transport combined. That’s a staggering concentration of climate impact, and it’s not just about private jets though those are a factor but also about investment portfolios, lifestyle infrastructure, and resource consumption patterns that go far beyond HVAC use.

Even within the U.S., the picture is tilted. A 2023 Washington Post article showed that the top 10% of American households by income contribute about 40% of the country’s total emissions. That includes everyday things bigger homes, more air travel, higher consumption overall. So when you say you’re not talking about “mega rich,” I think that’s part of the issue: in a global context, many people we see as just well-off or middle-class in the West are actually in the top slice of emitters.

Now about your challenge to “show total emissions by quintile, not just per capita” fair. But looking only at totals can obscure where intervention matters most. One billionaire can emit more than tens of thousands of people combined when you factor in things like yacht fuel, private flights, and most critically, emissions tied to their financial holdings. A report from Oxfam and data reviewed by NPR show that just 125 billionaires produce on average 3 million tons of CO₂ per year each via their investments. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/17/greenhouse-emissions-income-inequality/

That’s not just a rounding error. It's a target-rich environment for policy.

So yeah, reducing HVAC usage is great and worth doing. But if we really want meaningful climate action, we need to stop pretending that the biggest gains will come from guilting average people into sweating through summer while we ignore the top-end consumption and capital-driven emissions that dwarf those efforts. It's not dishonest to shift the frame.

It's just a completely nonsensical take when you really look into it. Sorry but it's just true regardless of how long you've been duped. Ok?

You keep coming up with scenarios to retake the center stage of things righ and it doesn't matter how you try to frame it the people at the bottom can do nearly nothing of statisical pressure to change the outcome regardless how how hard we all drink the koolaid.

Do we all matter sure but like I said legislation would carry the weight of any major change and minor sacrifices are flawed

If you wanted to actually be concerned you would have offered actual concrete evidence for your argument but you didn't cause you have actual concern with any level of convincing me. You want me to convince you which you know and I know is a moot point. Cause you want it your way regardless of any facts.

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u/AwesomeAni 2d ago

Ah see my house doesn't even have any! I look forward to boiling my balls of this summer for the environment

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u/Dramatic_Arugula_252 2d ago

Excellent point!!!

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u/clubhouse-666 2d ago

Your comment reads:

"Yes, don't worry about the billionaires consuming massive amounts of water to make their AI more profitable. Instead you should fry in your homes instead! Think of the shareholders plz..."

We're talking about WATER, not energy.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago

Are you not aware power plants also use water for cooling?

Did you think the chips magically consume water to operate?

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u/clubhouse-666 2d ago

Are you not aware that we're largely reliant on power, while AI is absolutely unnecessary? If I use my air conditioning on an extremely hot day, I benefit directly. If I use AI to compose an email or a term paper, I also benefit directly but the difference is I could have just done the fucking work myself.

For the record, I agree with your message to conserve power. But when we're talking about using our natural resources to benefit a select few (billionaires), then your message really has no bearing here. Industry and corporations have the power to make the biggest change, stop putting the onus of change on the people.

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u/jacknbarneysmom 2d ago

I did not knowAI took a lot of energy. I don't think i use it. We are getting solar panels installed as soon for all of our electrical usage.

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u/Not-A-Seagull 2d ago

Others have pointed out, this number includes the power used to train AI as well, so it’s a bit inflated.

HVAC and personal vehicle use remain our biggest expenditures of energy.

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u/VacuumHamster 2d ago

I feel fortunate that growing up we didn't have money to fix the A/C so we learned to be comfortable with windows and fans. Great for me and the planet so it's double great for me!

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u/HarpyCelaeno 2d ago

I’m the only person in my household, who gives a shit about this. It’s a battle between thermostat settings.

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u/BelleMakaiHawaii 2d ago

It’s true, we don’t have AC or heating

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u/Angylisis 2d ago

This is why I refuse to add AC to my house. We make do without and it would just jack up my bills and pollute.

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u/ImSMHattheWorld 2d ago

And anyone who claims to be concerned about climate change and travels by air...

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u/iliketreesndcats 2d ago edited 2d ago

Sourcing your power well is the best thing you can do to be honest. If you have a nice solar system then you don't need to worry about using your HVAC. Blast it, baby.

My government offers a nice subsidy on solar systems. We can get a 6.6kw system for about usd$400. Batteries aren't covered by the subsidy yet and are quite expensive but usually the sun's out when you want to run your HVAC anyway.

Same story with the chatbot. It really depends where the energy is sourced. OpenAI use Microsoft Azure to run chatGPT and Azure is run entirely on renewables.

Idk where OP gets their info from though. Water usage is about half a litre for every 30-50 messages, and that's because of the evaporative cooling techniques used in data centres to keep those juicy components cool. https://apnews.com/article/chatgpt-gpt4-iowa-ai-water-consumption-microsoft-f551fde98083d17a7e8d904f8be822c4

It also says they plan to be "water positive" by 2030 and I'm curious to know how that works

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u/Veronikafth 1d ago

If you care about the environment, please be mindful of your air conditioning this summer! Take advantage of natural airflow/cooling as much as you can! It’s good for your wallet and the environment

I would love to do my part, but my allergies are off the hook from May-August. My tightly sealed house with my AC and HEPA filter are my only refuge from the grass pollen onslaught, which unless I'm very heavily medicated, will send me to the hospital with anaphylaxis. It's bad.

Hopefully my reduce/reuse habits make up for it in other ways. This house is staying shut tight until at least September.

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u/lovelycosmos 1d ago

A great deterrent for not spending money in electricity on air conditioning is having all casement windows in my house 🙃 I hate it because we can't have air conditioning but at the same time I'm saving so much money on electricity in the summer

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u/Not-A-Seagull 1d ago

If you live in a dryer climate, you could also look into a swamp cooler. It uses much less power, and doesn’t need to be installed in a window.

The only downside is they use water.

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u/lovelycosmos 1d ago

I appreciate your suggestion, but dear Lord the humidity is the number 1 issue for us in the summer. We're in a coastal town surrounded by water on all sides. It's routinely 90-100% humidity in the spring and summer

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u/John-Nixon 1d ago

I must have a good model. I only use 0.29 watt hours on a typical question on my home hardware.

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u/jorymil 6h ago

For sure! I'll say this, though: heat pollution in water sources is a real problem. Power plants are located near large sources of water, and the increase in temperature downstream versus upstream can cause ecological issues. Obviously the issues are less severe than those caused by carbon emissions from those power plants.

Depending on your location, it turns out that although AC consumes more energy per unit time, heating used all day consumes more total energy, and if it's gas heating, releases more CO2 into the atmosphere than controlled emissions from a well-regulated power plant. Heat pumps are really the way to go.

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u/SeroWriter 2d ago

Hitching onto this comment here, asking AI one question uses 2-5Wh of energy (7200-18,000J).

Those are not accurate numbers. You can run a local AI model on a 150w graphics card and it would consume less than 100w. A lightbulb uses more energy.

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u/Quetiapine400mg 2d ago

It's pretty worthless, tbh - it lies, like, A LOT

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u/EducationalBrick2831 2d ago

I agree. Asked a question and I got completely Wrong Answer ! Found Info proving the answer was False.

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u/Such-Wind-6951 2d ago

Wdym

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u/MySafewordIsCacao 2d ago

It's not lying. It can't. It's an AI. What it can do is consistently deliver incorrect information. It's a large language learning model. It's basically the word equivalent of an AI art piece in that it can only make use of what is already out there, and because AI is unable to reason like a human, that means it can't sort through it's sources.

https://mindmatters.ai/2024/04/large-language-models-are-often-wrong-never-in-doubt/

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u/Quetiapine400mg 1d ago

yeah my bad, it doesn't lie it's just stupid as fuck

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u/EducationalBrick2831 2d ago

Wrong Answers though.

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u/meckyborris 2d ago

Lol at this because i know of a guy who asked how much money his girlfriend and friend made on their podcast. It told him 2 million$ so now he's trying to sue them for any of his "work" he's done on the pod. Dude has literally burnt every bridge he had because of chatgpt.

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u/CloseCalls4walls 2d ago edited 2d ago

I've found it very useful in discussing the state of the world and to speak with me on the things I write about regarding it, which I have recently begun speaking on. It reminds me I'm actually really well in tune with things and provides me ideas or expands on the thoughts I have.

Edit: umm I found it useful. What exactly y'all downvoting again? Literally ask it how it would help change the world if it could. It's good shit. Periodt.

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u/Quetiapine400mg 1d ago

It glazes the fuck outta you no matter what you say though, which is makes it pretty useless for gauging how "in tune with things" you are. Take A and Take B are equally impressive depending on which one I'm pushing. Every idea is a good idea. Every decision was definitely the right one. They even suck you off just for asking follow up questions.

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u/CloseCalls4walls 1d ago

I'm just saying I'm enough of a good judge and critical thinker to understand the ways in which it has helped ME. But I know what you mean.

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u/EducationalBrick2831 2d ago

Do you know you will, absolutely will get Wrong Info many times ! Do you check it ? Or just go with it. That's like getting Real News on FB ! Not going to happen 50% or more

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u/CloseCalls4walls 2d ago

It's really basic stuff. There's nothing I need to check ... It's common sense. Like discussing its take on my take ... It's a matter of opinion.

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u/Iamnotheattack 2d ago

it's not worthless, it scores 60% of the GPQA–experts in adjacent fields score 30% with 30 mins of Internet access–the thing is that you have to know how to prompt it right and also how to make it fact check itself.

when you make a statement either Saying "provide nuanced critique of this statement" or just adding this "(?)" will vastly improve outpit quakity

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u/brishen_is_on 2d ago

People who doesn’t use or understand something are it’s most vigorous critics. AI should be used as tool, not a magic eight ball, so sorry you are getting downvoted (I expect to join you). Avoiding AI, unless you plan to perish or live completely off the grid within the next few years is impossible. I would say better to learn how it works than burying your head in the sand, but who needs common sense when outrage provides more dopamine? 🙄

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u/thedrexel 2d ago

I’ve got zero use for it. I downvote and block users that post shit from any ai. I really fucking hate it when someone answers a question in a sub with “I asked chat blah blah and it said blah blah”. I hate the “art” too.

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u/chemicalysmic 2d ago

I HATE this so much lol- I delete comments from my social media posts (science communicator) where laypeople are answering questions from other laypeople with "I don't know but I asked ChatGPT..." If you don't know, sit down. Dunning-Kruger complexes on crack.

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u/Accomplished-Till930 2d ago

Over on truth social and on my “local” subreddit the Republicans have been doing this a lot recently, I refuse to engage with “chatgop” as I have started calling it.

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u/thedrexel 2d ago

Agreed! Fuck all that shit!

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u/omg-sheeeeep 2d ago

Which is also funny, because the AI chatbot doesn't know either!

Research suggests that AI is often wrong, people have been taking it at face value even though it's fake to their own detriment.

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u/imlegos 2d ago

AI is good at convincing itself it's correct.

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u/RegularTeacher2 2d ago

I work with a project manager who uses chatgpt for EVERYTHING: drafting emails, writing reports, putting together presentations, QA/QC'ing design plans, you name it. It has caused so much extra work for me and my coworkers because he never proofreads what it generates. It fucking boils my blood.

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u/throwaway098764567 2d ago

the chaos in me wants to suggest you just stop proofreading it for him and let things go where they go. but knowing what i know of work, it probably won't be him that pays for his mistakes

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u/RegularTeacher2 2d ago

My coworkers and I have thought about that, but ultimately we want to produce the best work we can so we just fix his mistakes and grumble about it. Fortunately there's been enough of us who have had issues with this that he was finally informed yesterday his AI usage needs to be cut back, so we will see how it goes.

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u/corgi-potato 2d ago

I HATE AI art 😒

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u/rowenaaaaa1 16h ago

AI images. It's not art.

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u/ScaredAdvertising125 2d ago

Oh god I’m so glad that I’m not alone

They use this shitty AI generated music in our town halls and I fucking hate it. It’s just annoying beats, rambling bullshit lyrics and it makes a mockery of the human creation of music.

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u/Iandidar 2d ago

It's a useful tool, but you have to really watch the output. I basically use it as spell check on steroids. Spelling, grammar, consistency in tense and tone. That kind of thing.

Then of course reread it to make sure it didn't break anything.

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u/Puzzled_Molasses_259 1d ago

I tend to be blunt in my speech/emails. It’s caused problems for me over the years because people think I’m being mean or rude. I recently discovered that ChatGPT can evaluate the tone of your text. It saved me from sending an email that probably would have caused drama unintentionally the other day.

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u/yak_danielz 2d ago

i downloaded it a couple years ago just to make it answer the dumbest, non-answerable questions i could think of in the middle of the day when i'm bored and wanna hearty laugh.

when i was being silly, it was fine. but when i asked serious questions, it would fail half the time.

after listening to conversations with people who design and work on these AI systems, if they are worried, why shouldn't i be?

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u/hatesnack 2d ago

I actually had a great use for AI recently. I work helping professors submit grant requests to the government, and this one RFP absolutely required a Gantt chart. The professor is an older neurologist and has no clue what a Gantt chart is.

I was able to upload his milestones plan and have GPT spit out a half decent Gantt chart in a few minutes. I'd have just made it myself, but the thing had to be submitted in a few hours and other things weren't finished.

I think using AI as a tool is great, it's people that try and replace too much with it that are the problem.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Dr_Matoi 2d ago

So when it is integrated into daily life, into every phone, every computer, every tablet, in your hospitals and your workplace, what's going to be your excuse for not learning it?

There is nothing to learn.

Prompting is a skill

No, it is not. LLMs do not understand what the user writes, and they do not think like a human nor process their input like a human. Their behaviour can be influenced by string changes that make no intuitive sense to a human user, like starting the prompt with seemingly random word salad. There is no reliable, systematic way of finding an optimal prompt besides brute force combinatorics over thousands or millions of permutations. A user who has dabbled around to find a prompt form that works reasonably well has not "learned a skill". They just anthropomorphize the machine and think, "makes sense that this prompt improves performance". But there are probably countless prompt variations that would be even better, yet the user will never think of trying them. And those differ from task to task and model to model, so even if one works out the best using automation, it is not transferrable - it has to be started over each time for each model. People who think they are "skilled AI-users" are deluding themselves.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/hanhepi 2d ago edited 2d ago

If I want to write a literary masterpiece, I'll take a crack at actually writing it, not feeding some bullsit into AI and hoping it spits out something great. That's not "writing". That's letting a computer do the writing for you.

I'm enough of a Luddite I'll probably do the first draft on paper with a pen.

And if I fail at writing a great literary work? Oh well, lots of other folks have already managed it, I'll just read their stuff instead.

If I want to compose a work equal to Mozart I'll... well I'll give up immediately because I've never had much of an ear for music (I listen to Nickelback sometimes for Pete's sake), and I never learned to read music nor play an instrument (Hot Cross Buns/3 Blind Mice on the recorder doesn't count).

AI isn't going to replace me in the workplace any time soon. I'm a housewife, and my husband is way too poor to ever buy a robot to replace me. lol. I've got job security. And he won't be replaced at his work by AI anytime soon either, because he's a skilled mechanic. He doesn't have to worry until AI gets thumbs.

Until then, I'll keep right on not using AI, and my life will go on largely unchanged.

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u/thedrexel 2d ago edited 2d ago

I already have it on my phone. It is turned off. I have the option on my home computer, it is turned off. My job, it is not used and if it is used I will be the one that finds the errors in it, there are only 2 people where I work that does what I do, myself and one other.

The problem with ai is what you said, “it doesn’t know anything that people don’t know”. Exactly. The majority of people are fucking stupid. I don’t need an incompetent machine learning program making my life more difficult than it already

I see you’ve added to your post since I posted the above. I’m also a musician. I don’t need ai to help me write music. Those that do weren’t disciplined enough to practice. My personal creative endeavors are just that, mine. I also use modular synthesizers. There is a patch that I like to occasionally build that will produce an almost endless sequence of notes. The “random” generation of notes is made by using a “source of uncertainty” module that spits out “random” control voltages. I put random in quotes because the randomization can be varied depending on how you modulate it via another output module or where you send the signal after it is generated. At the basic level this is a basic program to get interesting random sounds. It takes a good understanding of your personal modular system (most people have different systems set up based on personal preferences with different modules that do the same thing but by different manufacturers). I saw all of that because I could do this with ai but it would not be enjoyable for me and i would not learn anything along the way.

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u/Irlandes-de-la-Costa 2d ago

You don't need to learn shit to use chat GPT, it does all the work for you. Prompting is not a big skill, comparing it to playing an instrument or knitting is so wild.

If you aren't fact checking it and accept its words at face value, that's just willful ignorance.

So what's the point of Chat GPT when you still need to consult experts and do your research? Btw we are complaining about the people you are complaining.

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u/drakoman 2d ago edited 2d ago

Gotta be honest, don’t think you’ll convince them. Looks like a typical r/aiwars post

Edit: I understand this isn’t a popular stance. I understand if you downvote me. Have a great Friday regardless :)

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/whuaminow 2d ago

I'm in IT and I have to manage some aspects of AI in our business environment, like it or not, it's here. I think that this dismissive argument that it's not replacing "real artists" or "real writers" or "real" ... whatever is ignoring something that is really key to understanding the dilemma - a lot of real live people do work every day that isn't what you're calling "real". No AI will be writing Walt Whitman quality poetry, or Beethoven quality music, but a lot of jobs (and a lot of people's paychecks) are making good enough ad graphics, reporting on financial news, creating elevator music and summarizing documents. It's this group of activities, and a quickly widening swath of other work that is vulnerable to being swallowed up by AI. If an AI company swoops in and says that you can replace 100 people (or 5 people) with a $500/month AI subscription the business case is made, and those people are out on the street. We need to make informed choices as a society about what is best for everyone, and unfortunately the technology is moving far faster than society or a government can adapt to it or regulate it.

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u/drakoman 2d ago

I have been fascinated with the technology of neural networks and the subsequent methods utilizing them since the early days, so it’s interesting to me how hard popular opinion turned against anything AI. It will become ubiquitous, and that causes an uncertain future, understandably, but the whole future is uncertain anyway. I don’t think “AI” is making the world worse, and in fact it will enable lots of future technologies that will help progress us in so many fields. I’m hopeful.

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u/MaLMaison115 2d ago

I never started because of its water/energy consumption- absolutely not worth it for the majority of frivolous applications. It’s wild how its usage has been framed as a positive addition to our lives and a fundamentally victimless issue…not the case, in my estimation.

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u/p0verina 2d ago

This. My anxiety around our pollution is largely due to how normalized it’s becoming to rely on AI - from large corps in work to just daily use. The amount of energy that data centers require for AI really stresses me out

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u/SLiverofJade 2d ago

Ditto. It's basically predictive text, which is useless, and is eroding critical thinking skills.

And the "art" is essentially stealing from artists and throwing it in a $5 blender from the thrift store.

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u/cheffromspace 2d ago

You shouldn't talk about things you clearly don't understand

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u/SLiverofJade 2d ago

Ok then, have a study: "GenAI can improve worker effi- ciency, it can inhibit critical engagement with work and can poten- tially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving. Higher confidence in GenAI’s ability to perform a task is related to less critical thinking effort...Knowledge workers face new challenges in critical thinking as they incorporate GenAI into their knowledge workflows."

And another"Our research demonstrates a significant negative correlation between the frequent use of AI tools and critical thinking abilities, mediated by the phenomenon of cognitive offloading."

an article: "In a decision released Monday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge reprimanded lawyer Chong Ke for including two AI "hallucinations" in an application filed last December."

In fairness, there were 2 studies with small sample sizes in Italy and Ghana that found university students' results could improve if AI was used judiciously and critically.

The results of this will play out for certain over time, but the lack of critical thinking skills combined with propaganda (something that AI is noted to be prone to) in the US is already giving the rest of the world a pretty good idea.

And since your response lacks any arguments or evidence to support your position kinda proves my point for me.

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u/cheffromspace 2d ago

My issue is this statement

It's basically predictive text, which is useless

Okay then, have some studies:

Tracing the Thoughts of a Large Language Model denonstrates that while even though it is trained to predict the next token, the model can plan ahead to achieve a desired outcome. When writing a limerick, it knows what words it will rhyme with and fill in the rest to get there.

I Predict Therefore I Am: Is Next Token Prediction Enough to Learn Human-Interpretable Concepts from Data The paper concludes that next-token prediction is sufficient for LLMs to learn meaningful representations that capture underlying generative factors in the data, challenging the notion that LLMs merely memorize without developing deeper understanding.

A Law of Next-Token Prediction in Large Language Models which shows that "LLMs enhance their ability to predict the next token according to an exponential law, where each layer improves token prediction by approximately an equal multiplicative factor from the first layer to the last."

Language models are better than humans at next-token prediction A study comparing humans and language models at next-token prediction found that "humans are consistently worse than even relatively small language models like GPT3-Ada at next-token prediction. This highlights that the training objective, while simple, creates systems that excel at pattern recognition in ways that humans don't.

Fractal Patterns A paper on "Fractal Patterns May Unravel the Intelligence in Next-Token Prediction" conducted "extensive comparative analysis across different domains and model architectures" to examine self-similar structures in language model computations that might explain their emergent capabilities.

I'm familiar with most of the links you posted. I share the concern for atrophied critical thinking skills. I personally believe LLMs can enhance critical thinking skills IF (big if) used intentionally for that purpose. However, I take issue with the tired and intentionally overly simplified saying that "they just predict the next token." They predict the next token astonishingly well and do so based on their deep understanding of the concepts involved. The same areas of the model get activated regardless of the language they're writing in.

If you're concerned about the spread of misinformation, I recommend exercising those critical thinking skills yourself instead of repeating the same old misleading and incorrect phrase.

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u/anarchistright 2d ago

How is it eroding critical thinking skills?

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u/SLiverofJade 2d ago

When working for regional government, I had people say they used ChatGPT to look up policy and legislation, rather than looking at any of the public facing resources and information. (Saying that AI told you something was legal when it actually is not legal won't save you from repercussions).

Teachers and professors who have students that have ChatGPT write entire papers for them.

People using it to "write" books.

Lawyers using it to write their briefs and arguments, with fictional citations and cases.

The garbage "history" spewed out that people consume without question.

The fact that people now say they used ChatGPT to look something up and trusting it without any sources, nor confirming it independently.

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u/QuantumModulus 2d ago

Turns out when you turn to a chatbot to do all the critical thinking for you, that's thinking your brain isn't doing. We are creatures incredibly prone to taking the most superficially passable outputs and running with them, if they do the job with the least friction.

Cognitive abilities are a muscle. If you don't use them, they will decay. This study was done by Microsoft by the way, the people who are most responsible for enabling OpenAI to become what it is today and with the largest stake in it.

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u/Chiatroll 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yeah I'm a software engineer and there's still plenty of reasons not to use AI past what work requires of me. It's still not accurate at anything that hasn't been solved a thousand times and I don't need the tool got for a problem that's been solved a thousand times. It's literally making a generation of worse coders who try to vibe and never practice learning those basics.

Everyone's talking about millimeters of progress like it's miles when it's clear irs at a wall. The usage is too high and despite that it's not really showing to be profitable in any form but collecting from investors.

And I'd never use it for art or anything creative because it's just theft and bad at it.

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u/Bargenhall 2d ago

Would love to hear the other reasons if you are open to it.

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u/chairman_maoi 2d ago

it attracts billions of dollars in venture capital and still isn't profitable, uses an enormous amount of computing power, which in turn needs enormous amounts of water and power, is extremely expensive to run.

and at the end of all this it can't do anything but regurgitate basic answers or hallucinate incorrect ones

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u/Livid_Parsnip6190 2d ago

I don't use AI for many reasons, but primarily (besides generative AI being theft) because it sucks.

Have you searched for something on a search engine lately? The first thing that pops up is some AI summary that doesn't even get the basics right.

Let's say you are wondering what is the first ever episode of the Simpsons to have Ned Flanders in it. If you Google that, the AI summary could tell you that Ned Flanders is Homer Simpson's brother. Why would I trust it for anything? It just makes up garbage. It's not a quality tool, and it's shitting up the entire internet.

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u/Tribblehappy 2d ago

If you type -ai after your query, the AI answer won't come up.

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u/chriswhitewrites 2d ago

My issue is that I shouldn't have to do that every time. I didn't opt in, and I can't opt out. Same with image searching - I shouldn't have to put "before: 2023" to avoid slop. The enshittification is fucked.

I also hate how confidently it answers, despite often being wrong.

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u/Tribblehappy 2d ago

Well the other option is to use something other than Google.

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u/Livid_Parsnip6190 2d ago

Thanks, I'll remember that

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u/marswhispers 2d ago

Including profanity in your search terms has the same effect (although it may impact your search results)

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u/CuzIWantItThatWay 2d ago

Google AI basically scans websites for answers. Sooooo many bloggers are looking for other revenue streams because nobody is clicking on links anymore and just looking at the AI answer. These giant corporations are leeching money away from hard-working people. 🤑

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u/RedCrestedBreegull 2d ago

I completely stopped using chrome and google search on my all my devices because of this. Google doesn’t let you opt out of Generative AI popping up at the top of search results. Typing -ai doesn’t stop them.

I’m a professional that needs to use data from official sources. I can’t risk the temptation to use anything from these generative AI responses because they are often incorrect.

There are other search engines that let you go into the settings and turn off AI search results. Google does not. I’d tell you which search engine I’m using, but that’s against the rules of this sub.

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u/Totakai 2d ago

If it helps, Ai hates swearing. If you do need to ever need to use google, throw a swear with the search.

I still hate it though but at least it's a silly workaround

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u/MTHiker59937 2d ago

I'm a food blogger, and to have my content stolen by AI sites that are all over Facebook is becoming a real problem for my industry.

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u/Not_Jeff12 2d ago

Literally just came across something similar. Someone in a sub for a book series I am reading posted about how Google AI picked up an April Fools joke posted in the sub about the last book in the series being cancelled. When I looked it up myself, Google AI said that the book both wasn't and was cancelled. Here is the text it gave me:

"No, Pierce Brown's "Red God" (originally planned as book 7 of the Red Rising series) was not cancelled; the publisher, Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau, cancelled it amidst allegations of emotional distress and manipulative storytelling [1, 2]., Reddit"

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u/LoverOfSandwich 2d ago

I tried using it to help me do research for a paper i was writing and realized how bad it really is.  I was trying to use it basically as a smarter search function.  Things like find instances in this article that reference xyz.  It would return direct quotes, in quotations, that were nowhere in the articles.  Even after telling it to stop summarizing, it just would not quit doing it.  

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u/Livid_Parsnip6190 2d ago

If you ever hang out in subs like r/whatsthatbook, there's a real problem with idiots who put the query into ChatGPT, and then credulously post what it spits out even though it is not a real book. Is the person looking for a picture book they read as a kid about a girl who loves pancakes? ChatGPT will say it's "The Girl Who Loves Pancakes" by Eric Carle. No such book exists, but Eric Carle is a popular picture book author, and "The Girl Who Loves Pancakes" is a very obvious title, so...

What a way to waste everyone's time.

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u/ComprehensiveTart689 2d ago

The fact that they wouldn’t go behind and google whether that book actually exists before sharing …

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u/Livid_Parsnip6190 2d ago

It's because they think ChatGPT is a source of actual information. They don't understand that it is expensive autocomplete.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

Yes, AI does not know the difference between:

Reference Citation Plagiarize Incorporation by Reference Literature Cited

Do NOT use that crappy code for writing. That's what it is. CODE.

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u/Delphina34 2d ago

It has also been known to cite people who don’t exist, or have nothing to do with the subject matter.

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u/HeyGayHay 2d ago

I mean, I agree with the tenor that one shouldn't blindly trust the results of any AI. People put waaay too much trust in it and especially when you have no experience in the topic at hand the way AI phrases and formats the response (including alleged quotes with references) it is easy to get fooled and just accept the answer, even though if you were to check the reference you'd find that the quote doesn't exist and the reference even says otherwise.

But then again, AI is a tool. I'm using Copilot almost daily at work, a good friend has a ChatGPT sub for his academic works and loves it even though he still needs to go back to papers and verify what it claimed. I found the Google AI to be the worst of them all, DDG AI Assist is a miss most of the time too. But if you prompt it properly, actually question the answer and check the references it can be a huge time saver. I've gotten better search results from Copilot than by DDG and DDG yields much better results than google.

Same goes for those yanky "vibe coders" using AI to generate a whole ass website or app and just prompting it a million times to fix a bug. Obviously that's stupid, just like asking AI something and 100% believing whatever it says. But Github Copilot in Visual Studio is a fucking time saver. Instead of typing a shitton of lines you just tell it what it should generate, then review what it created and fix it.

AI is still only a tool. I wouldn't use a hammer to clean my windows, just like I wouldn't use AI to find facts. But it has its usecase, it can be effective, but only with the right usecase and care. Giving the hammer to a baby is stupid, using it to push in the nail next to the baby bed is smart. But many people take AI as the allround, allknowing solutions that has already surpassed the average humans knowledge, when in fact it's nothing but an aggregation of text based information it crawled over. If the entirety of reddit would start to make up Sir Dickin Mahbutt who was Hitlers secret buddy he fucked with, and post it anytime Hitler is mentioned for the next 5 years, chances are ChatGPT and co will start to "believe" it, simply because it was mentioned so often in reference to Hitler. It doesn't understand the information, it just saw it mentioned often enough to accept it. 

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u/RustyDogma 2d ago

I look at AI like having an intern. Might cut out some work for me but would never use it for professional results.

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u/bird-in-bush 2d ago

brain rot. i don’t want AI doing my brain work because that is exactly what the broligarchs expect. when humans no longer care to think independently, we have traded one religion for another.

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u/Correct-Ad-6473 2d ago

My 16yo just had a class debate on the pros and cons of AI and I happened to read this article just prior and we had a good discussion on how we need to be really careful to use it responsibly.

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-ai-linked-eroding-critical-skills.html

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u/theoddowl 2d ago

I’m not OP, but I don’t use ChatGPT mainly because I have zero use for it. I can’t think of a single thing that I would use it for. And quite frankly, I think it’s pathetic when people use it for things like writing emails or in place of a search engine. It just screams incompetence to me.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

It's search results are so BLAND

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u/Dulcette 2d ago

People are starting to use it to write their dating bios. Facebook dating has an option to have ai write your bio and it adds something to let everyone know. The whole thing is really dumb. Automatic swipe left.

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u/Livid_Parsnip6190 2d ago

When I used a dating app, if I got a match, it would ask me if I wanted to use AI to help me message the person. I don't need AI to hit on men, thank you.

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u/godddamnit 2d ago

In terms of the writing e-mails, it does have a place for people with conditions that impact processing/language/ social functioning. For example, some autistic people/people with autism (not getting into that debate) actually use it to learn/practice standardized responses and avoid miscommunications.

That said, the average person can write their own damn e-mails.

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u/jahi69 2d ago

I use it to help with chemistry homework. You can use it to make workouts for you. You can use it to make recipes out of what you have available in your house. Use it to ask any questions that you’d have to use multiple google searches to find an even semi-decent answer. Just use it with a grain of salt because it will give you wrong answers from time to time. I pretend it’s like my virtual intelligence assistant.

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u/Tribblehappy 2d ago

It hallucinates wrong answers all the time so definitely don't rely on it for homework or use it as a search engine. It frequently gets simple, basic math questions wrong.

If you're asking Google questions and not getting decent answers you're probably using it wrong. Younger people don't actually know how to use search engines because Google started catering to the people who would just type a straight question into it, but there are actual ways to type your query that get proper results. Or, don't use Google since the algorithm prioritizes results based on monetary reasons instead of relevance and accuracy.

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u/MarxistAnthropo 2d ago

I think there used to be ways--Boolean, e.g.--to get better results, but those structured queries don't seem to work any more.

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u/Financial_Use1991 2d ago

I have noticed that. It's very disappointing since it was a learned skill that was helpful

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

Use your brain avoid these problems. Keep it simple.

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u/UndedSailorScout 2d ago edited 2d ago

If I had an assistant that was as wasteful as chatgpt and as wrong as it, I would fire them.

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u/theoddowl 2d ago

I feel like all your examples are things I can do alone as a well-rounded adult. I don’t need help planning a work out or a recipe. I’m 30, I already know how to do that on my own. But I guess if it helps you learn, who am I to take umbrage? I simply don’t see a need for it in my life.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

Exactly. I am older than you and learned everything using the greatest coding machine of all. My brain. Don't need answers from some third party corporations'pathetic attempt at a half -assed cheap code that has maybe 1/10 the thinking power (or less). Ha!

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u/StumblingTogether 2d ago

I learn new recipes all the time using chatgpt, and I'm in my 30s. Are you saying you know how to cook absolutely everything in the world, or are you saying you just stick to what you already know how to cook?

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u/Decent_Flow140 2d ago

I like my recipes to come from skilled cooks who test their recipes. Not random stuff made up by a computer that has never tasted anything 

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u/StumblingTogether 2d ago

It's not made up, though. They are pulling from information on the internet.

I can taste things myself and adjust the flavoring, I've cooked enough to know when I see a bad recipe. AI is a tool that I use, and just like any tool, it's smart to know how to use it and when it is not working well.

A flat tire is useless until you fill it with air. If I want to, I can load up a document of a cookbook and then ask chatgpt to only give me the information that is in that cookbook. Or I can upload a bunch of cookbooks and ask chatgpt to cross reference all my cookbooks for the best recipe for what I have on hand.

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u/Decent_Flow140 2d ago

How is that not made up then? Either it’s just giving you exact recipes somebody else made (in which case I’d rather just go to the source), or it’s making changes to the recipes. But since it’s not able to test those changes, it has no way of knowing if they’re good or not.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

Just about. Cookie and Kate!

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u/hmnissbspcmn 2d ago

Lol you know what you know, and you don't know what you don't know.

That's like saying "you ask for dad for advice? I'm 30 I don't need daddy's advice anymore"

Gpt isn't always right (like dad) but damn if it doesn't give well-rounded insightful feedback for the right questions.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

At least, you think it does. Until you realize a hallucination was inserted somewhere AND your PII was secretly slipped to interested parties for marketing and development purposes.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

What are you learning when you do this?

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u/StumblingTogether 2d ago

I use it for cooking and cooking recipes. It's a lot easier than googling it and having to scroll down an article for a recipe. Plus, I can ask it follow-up questions like what kind of sauce could I make with this or what if I cooked it at this temp instead or what's a good substitute for this, etc.

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u/roodgorf 2d ago

I would really recommend investing in a cookbook like The Joy of Cooking or something instead. I'm sure ai recipes can get you by in plenty of cases, but it also makes a lot of terrible suggestions.

If you're interested, Ann Reardon of How to Cook That has some videos testing out ai cooking suggestions and breaking down how they can seem correct while still being wrong.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

And you didn't have to work about your phone popping up ads or going to sleep while trying to measure our flour. I find cooking from a mobile device so annoying.

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u/chemicalysmic 2d ago

First and foremost- I don't need it. I have a brain and can use my own powers of reasoning, investigation and critical thinking to answer a question or to learn about any topic I want to. I don't need an AI engine to spoon-feed me knowledge with a high margin of error. I think the fact that people are relying on it more and more for everything from answering simple homework questions to writing grocery lists or querying simple information is a symptom of our society's rapid descent into embracing ignorance and detesting education. (But that's another topic lol)

Second to that is seeing firsthand how these engines, GPT especially, regurgitate misinformation or blatantly hallucinate things that are simply not true. I'm a scientist by profession and a science communicator as a hobby and I have had dozens of (if not approaching the triple digits) interactions with laypeople where they are insisting my information or knowledge is wrong bc "but GPT/similar engine said *insert blatant lie* " This is really frustrating for me as a professional in a highly complex field that has a high barrier of entry for a reason; not elitist superiority but nuanced and complex information that takes years, decades, of training and education to master. An AI-powered engine is seen as more reliable and valuable than a real, educated and experienced professional! But it is also even more frustrating as a science communicator seeking to combat misinformation and anti-science propaganda spreading like wildfire through our culture and communities. AI is making that problem accelerate like an uncontrollable wildfire.

The environmental and ethical concerns come third to those issues which really just places the 'cherry on top' the bullshit cake. I want nothing to do with it and I am not interested in using it in any way whatsoever.

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u/Bind_Moggled 2d ago

In short: It’s mass scale plagiarism disguised as technology.

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u/Leoparda 2d ago

Over reliance on technology in general is causing a dumber populace. Whether it’s 15 second videos or AI summarizing articles for us - we’re letting the computers think for us. Stories of children graduating high school who are illiterate - no need to learn how to read a paragraph when AI can just tell you the theme and summary! Why spend the time learning math when I can just use a calculator?

I don’t want to lose my own skills through lack of use. I want to retain the ability to find biases in literature. I want to retain the ability to analyze statistical data. And I have no reason to create random images of myself in the style of a random artist.

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u/Groovyjoker 2d ago

AI Hallucinations

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u/cidvard 2d ago

Same. I hate the sycophantic 'writing' it produces and don't really have much use for it, but I do feel like not enough people understand the environmental impact of that thing.

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u/Dear_Astronaut_00 2d ago

Same. But I live in Iowa and a river near me is one of the primary resources used to cool servers. So the water issue is definitely personal.

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u/ilanallama85 2d ago

The only legitimate reason I can think of TO use these services is that it costs these fuckers money every time you do, because their business model sucks and it held up by wishes and lies. But I don’t think it outweighs the reasons not to.

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u/JupiterSkyFalls 2d ago

I refuse to stop calling it chat gps cuz it bugs my husband 🤣

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u/No_Mammoth_4945 2d ago

Yeah I tried having fun with it once and it had so many blocks and filters that I couldn’t get around so I just gave up. I’m in college and by this point I’ve already learned how to reliably get the information I want with just google, haven’t felt a need to try using AI especially with its tendency to make shit up. Same with the image generation features

I’m sure it’s helpful for some people but I have no use for it. If anything it would just be a hindrance

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u/GIINGANiNjA 2d ago

I've really been struggling with this lately. I tried out some agentic coding tools and was honestly blown away, and it's made my hobby programming projects so much more productive and enjoyable. But at the same time, I have some ethical/environmental concerns and feel pretty guilty about using ai.

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u/k8t13 2d ago

this part exactly, i will admit i've used it before for r studio help but it made me feel bad for all the reasons it's unethical

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u/Uncle-Cake 2d ago

The data and server centers that run the internet also use water the same way.

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u/Susanna-Saunders 2d ago

This. Fundamentally disagree with the tech.

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u/Active_Addendum_4849 2d ago

This. I don't like being farmed.

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u/Penguin335 2d ago

Yes. Environmental impact is horrendous. Couldn't have that on my conscience

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u/Ok_Finger9062 2d ago

Same! No thank you 🙅‍♀️🤖

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u/Safe-Two3195 2d ago

Is it the inference that uses this much resource or is it the training cost, attributed to each search? If it is the training cost, your searches are not going to have this level of negative impact.

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u/PreStardust 2d ago

Yep, this is the answer. I don't use any AI tools for many reasons, and I encourage others to seriously consider which of these tools are worth using.

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u/bdh2067 2d ago

Exactly

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u/cassy-nerdburg 2d ago

Same here, never touched the thing. I used a couple free generates from a random one to show a city for my DND campaign, but even that I'd have rather done by hand.

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u/JoeyPsych 2d ago

Never started it, never going to start it.

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u/RedHotFromAkiak 1d ago

I don't use it for many reasons, either, and now I've added another (I didn't know about the water usage).

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u/Tolin_Dorden 2d ago

This is a weird hill to die on, honestly. It’s like refusing to use the internet in the 90’s. It’s not going anywhere, regardless of your usage, because it makes so many things in life massively easier. All you’re doing is handicapping yourself for no societal impact. Could you make that argument about a lot of things? Sure. But AI is very different from almost everything.

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u/aidafloss 2d ago

I truly don't understand the arguments that "its not going away so you better start using it" if someone is against it because of ethical reasons. There are still vegetarians and vegans despite the proliferation of factory farming, and I know a lot of people who don't own guns despite the Second Amendment.

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u/No_Juggernaut4421 1d ago

This isnt an AI problem its a capitalism and an american greed problem. China just proved that underwater data center cooling works, so water consumption isnt a problem (1). Carbon? A human illustrator costs hundreds to thousands of times more cabon than an image generator (2). Energy? Compared 1 to 1, image generation costs less energy than mid range gaming setups.

https://w.media/china-builds-worlds-first-commercial-underwater-data-center/?utm_source=perplexity

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54271-x?utm_source=perplexity