
agreed, but don't data centers for the internet in general cause so much harm? today its impossible to get by without it, but surely all of us can cut down our use of it by quite a bit. do you think those who are hostile to others for using ai are hostile to anyone who uses the internet excessively? or do they simply not see the comparison? to me it seems like people are just making exceptions for using the products of predatory billion dollar companies, if they like using them enough.
i am not super educated on this topic so i could be wrong, but my basic understanding of it is that queries put into a search engine take an incredibly small fraction of the resources required to process a query input to an AI model, because of the difference in how each system sorts and categorizes words, and then a search engine also just brings up links on a keyword basis while the AI actually generates a response, which further depletes resources.
right, less bad, but still bad is my point. people have been doing detrimental harm to the environment since industrialization, and genz has part taken in the massive problem for their entire lives, yet it's only now that they're becoming aware, and only with ai it seems. these data centers are gross but there is progress on sustainability, and so while something is being done, we're still crapping in gallons of clean water, leaving our lights on, driving to work and buying tons of plastic.
fyi i'm not for non-localized ai. i dont use it. but it doesn't come from my concern with the environment as much as it does from an ethical issue with the industry. i hate that these data centers are speeding up climate change, but sustainability is in works, and eventually this bubble will pop; we don't have the infrastructure to support this industry, and it's proven to not be lucrative in the slightest.