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Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

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Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#101

Post by llama_drama »

foooorsyth wrote: post #38
josefritzishere wrote: post #3

The galling part of this is that the demand for AI is artificial. Consumers are not demanding AI.

ChatGPT is the fastest product in history to reach 100M MAUs. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chatgpt-on-track-to-surpass-1... Consumers are definitely demanding something like ChatGPT. Other companies are trying to ride the wave, and their attempts often feel forced as they’re trying to inject LLMs where they don’t really belong.

Is it possible, in general, to know where something belongs — whether it's an LLM or anything else — before you try?

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#102

Post by westurner »

A few solutions for this:

- "Ask HN: How to reuse waste heat and water from AI datacenters?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40820952

- "Ask HN: Can CPUs etc. be made from just graphene and/or other carbon forms?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40719725

(Edit)

- "Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water" (2023) : "Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar distilation with thermohaline convection" (2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39999225 ... "AI Is Accelerating the Loss of Our Scarcest Natural Resource: Water" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40783690

- "Ask HN: Does mounting servers parallel with the temperature gradient trap heat?" (2020) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23033210 :

> Would mounting servers sideways (vertically) allow heat to transfer out of the rack? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39555606

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#103

Post by sva_ »

lagrange77 wrote: post #78
sva_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if energy use is a sufficient criteria to dismiss some technology. This universe progresses by turning low entropy energy into high entropy energy, which the use of energy is doing. So it seems to be closely tied. Making processes more energy-efficient is only really a good thing as long as it retains its effectiveness.

> Not sure if energy use is a sufficient criteria to dismiss some technology. This universe progresses by turning low entropy energy into high entropy energy, which the use of energy is doing. What is the connection between those two sentences?

I think that things like intelligence and productivity are directly related to an increase in entropy. In this universe, we have a budget of entropy, and when it is used up, we're done for. We have to make our mark before that is the case, or the program that runs our simulation will just terminate with no result.

It is a very pseudoscientific believe of mine, I guess.

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#104

Post by triceratops »

jbandela1 wrote: post #5
strangattractor wrote: post #2

So this is why people eventual become batteries for the matrix.

Apparently, instead of batteries the original idea was to have them be part of a brain based neural net which makes a lot more sense than batteries. But this was felt to be too complicated.

Isn't there a long-standing myth that humans only use 10% of their brainpower? They could've used that to explain that the machines were stealing the other 90%. Anyone can understand that in 5 seconds.

Of course that means anyone unplugged from the Matrix would immediately become an S-tier genius. And how the hell do you write that?

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#105

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos »

skywhopper wrote: post #56
alecco wrote: post #8

I don't like 2024 Google, but they seem to be the only ones trying (at least) to make the least impact with their energy consumption. Why aren't there hit pieces like this on the US intelligence massive Utah Data Center? (for example)

The NSA's data center is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of similar data centers operated by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, et al. And I would not call increasing your power consumption YoY by 13% or whatever it was to be "trying". To the extent they are trying, it's only to squeeze the value out of their real estate and to avoid blowing their transformers. They can spin that as "saving energy" un…

All those ones operated by google, amazon, and microsoft are operated for the NSA. They exist to spy on you.

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#106

Post by muglug »

aoeusnth1 wrote: post #94
muglug wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So three years ago you'd spend less time with your kids in order to write a 2,000-line FOSS app for understanding Bash scripts? I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Exactly, you agree: the lack of LLMs is not good. LLMs turned a bad outcome into a good one.

It was a glib comment, but I fundamentally reject the premise that we'll have more personal time because of ChatGPT.

It's like saying that buying a faster computer that compiles quicker means you can spend more time with your family. Theoretically true, but in practice people who are that way inclined can find myriad other ways to use the new technology to eat up time.

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#107

Post by [deleted] »

muglug wrote: post #106
aoeusnth1 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, you agree: the lack of LLMs is not good. LLMs turned a bad outcome into a good one.

It was a glib comment, but I fundamentally reject the premise that we'll have more personal time because of ChatGPT. It's like saying that buying a faster computer that compiles quicker means you can spend more time with your family. Theoretically true, but in practice people who are that way inclined can find myriad other ways to use the new technology to eat up time.

[deleted]

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#108

Post by williamcotton »

muglug wrote: post #106
aoeusnth1 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, you agree: the lack of LLMs is not good. LLMs turned a bad outcome into a good one.

It was a glib comment, but I fundamentally reject the premise that we'll have more personal time because of ChatGPT. It's like saying that buying a faster computer that compiles quicker means you can spend more time with your family. Theoretically true, but in practice people who are that way inclined can find myriad other ways to use the new technology to eat up time.

Let's unravel what you've said here. You're saying that there is no way that I'm not a bad parent because I would have found a way to ignore my family regardless of some time saving device.

Glib? That's not glib. That's just being a jerk. And fueled by what, your personal distaste for LLMs?

People who are that way inclined?

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#109

Post by westurner »

westurner wrote: post #102

A few solutions for this: - "Ask HN: How to reuse waste heat and water from AI datacenters?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40820952 - "Ask HN: Can CPUs etc. be made from just graphene and/or other carbon forms?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40719725 (Edit) - "Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water" (2023) : "Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar dist…

- Concrete parking lot TPV Thermal Solar canopies, And concrete supercapacitor batteries: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40862190

Re: Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand

#110

Post by aoeusnth1 »

muglug wrote: post #106
aoeusnth1 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, you agree: the lack of LLMs is not good. LLMs turned a bad outcome into a good one.

It was a glib comment, but I fundamentally reject the premise that we'll have more personal time because of ChatGPT. It's like saying that buying a faster computer that compiles quicker means you can spend more time with your family. Theoretically true, but in practice people who are that way inclined can find myriad other ways to use the new technology to eat up time.

The core of your attitude comes through here - that productivity is pointless, computers are worthless and coding is a waste of time. Anyone dismissing LLMs comes from a similar value system of hating technology, as far as I’m concerned.
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