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AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

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Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#2
There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables.

By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a cloud datacenter. If anyone thought we were going "net zero" with all these airplanes they were mistaken.

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#3
post #2

There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables. By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a clou…

Yes, the climate boogeyman shows up as a common anti-tech trope since most people don’t look into the breakdown of emissions. Basically everything in direct consumer control pales in comparison to transit (car/truck/boat/plane).

Speed and scale has a good breakdown: https://speedandscale.com/tracker/

Plus most new AI datacenters are trying to go pure nuclear wherever possible

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#4
post #2

There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables. By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a clou…

The cloud uses a lot of energy. They can use renewable energy but they aren't. No I dodn't ask for AI either. So far it's been just a neat toy but not really useful to me. Maybe you should get outside of your bubble.

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#5
post #2

There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables. By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a clou…

So is your argument that we need to cut back on air travel first?

Or that we need to cut back on air travel while also reducing CO2 emissions from data centers, with more emphasis on cutting back on air travel?

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#6
post #4
post #2

There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables. By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a clou…

The cloud uses a lot of energy. They can use renewable energy but they aren't. No I dodn't ask for AI either. So far it's been just a neat toy but not really useful to me. Maybe you should get outside of your bubble.

> The cloud uses a lot of energy. They can use renewable energy but they aren't.

Do you have a source for that? In 2022, 64% of Google's data center energy was carbon free [1]. I was not able to find similar numbers for Microsoft or Amazon, but they have significant green energy investments as well [2][3].

My perception is that Google is the leader in this space but I don't have data to back that up.

[1] https://sustainability.google/progress/energy/

[2] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/global-infrastruct...

[3] https://aws.amazon.com/sustainability/

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#7
post #5
post #2

There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables. By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a clou…

So is your argument that we need to cut back on air travel first? Or that we need to cut back on air travel while also reducing CO2 emissions from data centers, with more emphasis on cutting back on air travel?

No, my argument is that this video is false from its very first frame. There is no sense in which humans were on a path to net zero.

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#8
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cloud uses a lot of energy. They can use renewable energy but they aren't. No I dodn't ask for AI either. So far it's been just a neat toy but not really useful to me. Maybe you should get outside of your bubble.

> The cloud uses a lot of energy. They can use renewable energy but they aren't. Do you have a source for that? In 2022, 64% of Google's data center energy was carbon free [1]. I was not able to find similar numbers for Microsoft or Amazon, but they have significant green energy investments as well [2][3]. My perception is that Google is the leader in this space but I don't have data to back that up. [1] https://sust…

I think Apple is, partly because they outsource a lot of their energy to the other clouds, partly because they have stronger PPAs with actual solar power plants.

Re: AI Is Shattering Hope of a Net Zero Future [video]

#10
post #5
post #2

There is apparently an inexhaustible corps of these innumerate bozos. Computers simply do not use that much energy, even in aggregate, AI is a small piece of what people do with computers, and computers either are or can easily be powered by renewables. By contrast there are 25000 civil aircraft in services, none of them are or could be powered by renewables, and every single one of them uses as much energy as a clou…

So is your argument that we need to cut back on air travel first? Or that we need to cut back on air travel while also reducing CO2 emissions from data centers, with more emphasis on cutting back on air travel?

There is no path to net zero that doesn't involve carbon capture, and carbon capture won't happen at scale until someone figures out how to make money off of it.
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