How much of that AI is actually being used for something worthwhile? Most of the AI I see being sold to the public is pointless bullshit. Nobody needs Microsoft Copilot or Bard or whatever for home/personal use; it’s just a new gimmick that’s called something other than what it is to captivate the imagination. It’s fuckin’ Bonzai Buddy 2.0.
These dumbass “AIs” would be better served as NPCs in video games, and instead they’re using them to just write the entire story and come up with lore details. 🤦♂️
There are lots of equally intensive AI models being used for various sciences. Being put to use in medicine, physics or even climate research.
Here’s an article going into how AI is helping accelerate important worthwhile research
Those aren’t being sold to the general public, though. Those have value; the shit being put into our phones and operating systems or controlling search engines and allowing people to have AI girlfriends does not.
True, but the research put into such things does translate into other far more beneficial areas. I say let those corporations spend the billions of dollars, eventually the consumer side will peter out but the knock-on effects for AI in science will continue for years to come
Preach, friend. I’m so sick of seeing how everything is getting some useless AI service jammed into it for no reason. At best its just a pointless feature that can be ignored. At worst it’s a data and memory vacuum that mines people’s activity in the name of “product improvements”.
Is it time yet to darken the sky?
[Very sarcasm] We can just burn more coal or just huck poor people into furnaces or something! Wait no, give them cars! Coal rollin’ cars!!! Why are we even pretending that racing toward extinction isn’t our goal? Embrace doom! Down with humanity! Up with constant fucking around with no regard for costs or consequences!
May I please have some painkillers before being tossed into the furnace, though :-\ Or maybe just like, toss some naproxen in after me I guess?
Could someone give me examples about fields where the AI is already useful?
Because right now it looks like the answer to a question no one asked.
I could see how it could be useful for NOC in videogames or as an assistant, but if it involves wasting so much energy, I don’t see the point.
or as an assistant
Is there any field where an assistant is worthless? I find GitHub CoPilot almost indispensable and soon equivalents will be available for nearly any industry.
Mostly though, I reject the idea that AI is a massive burden on our energy grid. It’s well under 1% of global energy consumption right now and I don’t see that changing. Yes, it’s going up, but other things are going up too.
For example cars are getting bigger and heavier, which means they use more energy. More and more people around the world are heating/cooling their home to make it comfortable instead of just liveable - drastically increasing energy consumption. We build homes with concrete instead of timber. We’re using more and more concrete worldwide… and concrete makes up something like eight percent of global energy consumption now (and growing).
We need to produce more energy. There’s no way around it.
That’s where I can’t agree with you. I’d say we need to produce the same amount of energy while trying to have more efficient devices.
That’s also why I’m asking what AI could bring to humanity. If it brings us ways to save energy and have enough food for a growing population, then I’d consider it. But for now, from what I know, it’s just creating a new need when we are already consuming way too much and destroying our planet.
Instead of creating new needs, we should try to live with less, while still enjoying life.
Cars getting bigger and heavier is clearly true, but they are also consuming less (at least for ICE cars) than before. My Seat Leon Cupra is drinking way less fuel than my old Audi S4 Avant while being more spacious inside. I’m also sure that at one point we’re gonna start having smaller and more efficient electric cars because not everyone wants a huge SUV.
Seems like ai companies should take some of that investor cash and build up their own power supply. Maybe they can be the ones to use the small, modular nuclear power stations I’ve heard a little about. Or go bananas on solar and various energy storage solutions.
