So, in continuation of the previous article, I just looked more into AI power demands and yeah, I honestly think AI has real world impacts leading to the crappiness of the 2020s. This is why the GPU market is F-ed up and why PC gaming is becoming unaffordable, but it's also negatively impacting us in regard of power usage. THe massive power demands associated with AI are subsidized by discounts for them and higher rates for everyone else. This is messed up.
Honestly, AI is creating so many market distortions I doubt it's truly worth it for the average consumer. I'm not saying this to be a luddite. I LOVE tech. I LOVE the IDEA of AI. I mean, my whole ideology relies on technological improvement over time to make our economy more productive and efficient, which, as a "lazy" person, LETS US WORK LESS. If AI could deliver us to a world of leisure, even if it "cost jobs", I'm FINE with that. I know not all leftists are, but I am.
BUT....I believe this tech needs more time in the oven. It reminds me of computing back in the 1950s. Remember how we needed a whole room just to like...do 1/10000th of what your typical phone does today? Was that workable for consumers? There was a time where people said the normal person would never need a computer. And in order to use the computing power we had today, or heck, even a fraction of it, a teeny tiny fraction, we would also have needed data centers that used so much power it would overwhelm the grid. It literally too decades of improvements and refinements before we got to a level where computers were feasible for people. We had the first consumer models in the 1970s and 1980s. We had the internet roll out in the 90s. And then it went mainstream in the 2000s and now its ubiquitous.
AI, if you asked me, should follow the same trajectory. We're in the 1950s "need whole rooms just to do basic things" phase with this tech. But for some reason, these vulture capitalists, these investor types are trying to FORCE it and SHOEHORN it into everything SEEMINGLY overnight, when IMO, it needs more time in the oven. The tech needs to mature to bring the energy costs down. We need it to do more, and to do it with less, for it to be feasible for mainstream consumers. It should be rolled out like computing was, where first, it was the government, universities, and high cost private businesses that utilized it, but then as time went on it became more and more affordable and energy efficient to the point it is easily accessible to everyone. But, again, corporations wanna make money NOW. They wanna shoehorn this into everything NOW. And the result is market distortions that F up the computing market, as well as our power grid. And as someone with an environmentalist streak, we're creating all of this POLLUTION just so some guy can whack off to some photorealistic anime character, or watch a funny clip of tupac fighting biggie smalls at the WWE. I mean, that stuff is nice, yeah, BUT....is society ready for this? Again, it's like trying to force the modern era of computing with 1950s-1960s era tech. It would require entire cities' worth of power demand just to power such a thing. Ya know? We're cooking ourselves FOR THIS?!
Again, Im not a luddite. I actually think AI is a cool tool. A bit oversold by corporate investors looking to make a buck, but I bet if we gave it time, by like 2100, or even 2050, it could revolutionize the world. The tech is in its infancy and should be given the time and resources to grow and mature. But that's the thing. When I think about AI here, I'm not thinking about NOW, or even 5 years from now. I'm thinking on a time scale of decades. And if we did it that way, we could implement it in a way that may be more sustainable. We could mature the models a bit where they use less energy, and also advance our computing a bit to handle those demands better. I mean, eventually, power usage issue should resolve itself, as long as we dont force progress at all costs while externalizing those costs to everyone but the people responsible for them. Again, we saw it happen with computing. Think about computers in the 1950s, then think in the 1980s, and then think about the present day. Every year, they get better. And every year, we're able to do more computations with less energy. Of course, we demand more computations over time too, the same would occur with AI, but again, with computing, we kept that largely within a certain power envelope. With AI, it's like we dont GAF if this uses like so many gigawatts a year and how ridiculous of a strain this is on our grid and computing resources. Again, it's the market distortions. The people making the AI are being subsidized and the costs are externalized to us. It should be the other way around. We shouldnt have higher power costs and more expensive computers BECAUSE OF AI. I'm sorry, we shouldnt. ANd you know what? I am starting to think this tech should be regulated.
Again, I'm not doing this because im some luddite. I'm a techie myself. I love tech. I always have, always will. It's just that, dang, this is getting out of hand and F-ing up the entire market for several things. And also polluting and cooking our planet. For what? Again, I have to ask that, for what? Funny internet content? So some movie or video game maker can not pay a worker to do art for them? Again, this should be actually subject to actual market conditions. Ya know, where anyone who wants to use this kind of service pays the cost that it's actually worth, and not be subisidized to the point of screwing over the rest of the society. That's my honest views. I like AI, i just think it needs more time in the oven and the financial market signals are all messed up here.
No comments:
Post a Comment