Does anyone avoid using ChatGPT because of its water usage?

[u/Sad_Butterscotch7063]

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.

[u/lifeisabowlofbs]

The water usage of ChatGPT, while a bit concerning, is generally overstated. I don't use it myself, and I cringe at the amount of energy wasted by people who just use it for shits and giggles, without producing anything productive. However, using it for a legitimate task here and there isn't the end of the world. You'll end up with less energy used on your end, since you spent less time on your laptop/computer. You may have saved yourself quite a few Google searches (which also use energy), and these days those spit out an AI response with just about any query anyways. So, depending on the needs of the task and how well you crafted your prompt, it could come out as more or less neutral. Unfortunately AI is here to stay, so hopefully they make it less resource intensive over time.

[u/peebsy → u/lifeisabowlofbs]

Yeah I have found it to be super useful in my line of work- crafting social media posts, emails, etc. It saves me a lot of time. Which is sorta anti-capitalistic in nature haha.

No offense to everyone else on this thread but it just feels like one of those technological advancements that everyone feels really weird about and doesn’t like until they see how it can benefit them and then will incorporate into their lives.

How many people thought cell phones were stupid “Why should I be available to talk on the phone at all times” ? lol. Simpler times

[u/lifeisabowlofbs → u/peebsy]

Yea, I train AI (if I don't do it someone else will, and it's easy money), and these models do really well with marketing-type tasks. That seems to be one of the best use cases for it, as it isn't super reliant on fact recall and isn't stealing from and displacing artists.

[u/ourobourobouros → u/peebsy]

It's nice for you personally but bad for everyone that lost their job to AI. 

And finding a way to use a new technology to personally profit under capitalism is not anti-capitalist. It's just more capitalism, you've just found a way to benefit from it more.

[u/peebsy → u/ourobourobouros]

Yeah I see your point there. Where do we draw the line though? Machines in factories made a lot of people loose their job. Construction equipment meant people lost their jobs.

It truly I hard for me to understand at what point I say ok “I’m not using this technology.” Just like with any technology - there is good and there is bad. For me, the good outweighs the bad.

I work for a state agency who is trying to get people more involved in camping. When I’m good at my job and marketing our program well - more people get to experience camping often for the first time (we provide gear and teach them how to use it), more people use state parks, more people get to unplug and have family time and enjoy the outdoors.

If AI can help me reach more people then I’m going to use it. Which I guess comes down to your “good for me, bad for everyone else.” (Although I’d argue it’s good for the people who find out about our program through my social media posts!)

Idk what the answer is, this thread just feels a bit like boomers swearing they’ll never use email or something haha I wanted to offset that a bit. Ultimately I think I can be anti-consumption and use AI at the same time.

[u/ourobourobouros → u/peebsy]

Machine automation has definitely had negative consequences, though. The industrial revolution is the reason why we're in a potentially irreversible climate crisis and we keep selling each other this idea that somehow MORE technology will fix it but we don't know that it will. Thinking we will invent a way out of global warming is an entirely faith-based belief.

Again, it's nice that AI has made your personal job easier. But it's hard to feel happy for you considering what's happening to artists and writers, and that's not to mention the existential threat of having a juiced-up autofill replace so much human communication and imagination.

There's this myth that older generations see new technology, don't understand it even though it's completely neutral and harmless, and only the young people are open minded enough to "get it". What's actually happening is the people with wisdom to see the deeper consequences are derided as fuddy duddies and ignored while the younger generations aren't even aware of what they've lost because they don't know what the world was like before.

I'm a millennial and was pro-tech my entire life. But what's going on with AI is a nightmare.

And on a personal note, I love the parks and the people who work in the parks. If I was reading communications from them and found out they were auto generated by a computer, it would really cheapen the experience.

[u/peebsy → u/ourobourobouros]

Yeah it’s hard because I agree with you on so many points, honestly. There was a point in time I just wanted to live in a cabin in the woods with minimal technology in a community of people that felt the same and felt like I’d be happy doing it.

I feel like in the last few years I’ve reached more of a middle ground.

I watched a doc on Fred Rogers a while back and I loved his attitude. Rather than be put off by TV and think of it as a horrible tool for brain rot and divisiveness (which it was at the time)- he saw its potential.

He saw that he could reach all children through a TV, make even the loneliest and isolated of children feel loved and cared for. He saw its potential for teaching millions of children emotional regulation while others used it to cash in on their own greed.

That story really shifted something in me.

One of the biggest truths of the world/universe is that it’s always changing. I can spend all my energy resisting it and getting angry about it. Or I can do what Mr. Rogers did and ask myself how can I use this for good?

I have seen with my own eyes how the captions of the posts I use AI to help me with have a much further reach than the ones I don’t (I’m talking purely promotional posts - we have 2 campouts with spots available in April, sign up now). AI has a way of organizing information in a very concise clear way, peppering emojis in perfectly.

Of course I communicate the elements I want the post to include, so it doesn’t feel totally barren of humanity. But it helps me do my job quickly so I can spend time focusing on other essential aspects of my job.

Since I’ve been using AI I’ve been able to promote our workshops a lot more and they are filling up more than they ever have because I don’t need as much time to dedicate to it.

I find over and over in life that living in the gray area is best. No matter how alluring it feels to live in the black and white.

[u/peebsy → u/ourobourobouros]

As far as the artists go- certainly it is a negative aspect of AI. But I have confidence that the art will find a way- it always does!

[u/peebsy → u/ourobourobouros]

And as far as your climate crisis point goes - ya that fucking sucks. I am really worried about it and I don’t necessarily believe we are going to think or invent our way out of it.

But we are all on this train together very well headed towards a train wreck 😭 And unless you have decided to move fully off grid and live without modernization then you are in the gray with the rest of us- people who have decided there’s some good/some bad to all this technology.

Sorry I’m blowing up this thread haha honestly I really appreciate you giving me something to think about. It’s been nice really flexing articulating my thoughts. it’s good for my brain, and now that I’m using AI to write emails I need the stimulation 🤣🤣 not even being sarcastic lol

[u/treehugger100 → u/peebsy]

Agreed. I use it for work within its limitations and rarely at home when I’m looking for an answer that will send me searching lots of websites. If I had to pay for it I wouldn’t. I’m not a big fan of it and am staying away from it in my tech but it can be a useful tool.

As for the jobs, I think that fear is likely overblown but I don’t know how much. We don’t have typing pools or elevator operators anymore. Jobs change as technology evolves. I think the worst thing is that as a society we don’t put enough real effort into reskilling people and lots of people get screwed. Just like how good paying factory jobs have become shit paying service jobs.