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2020: Microsoft sets goal to be carbon negative by end of the decade. 2023: Microsoft's emissions are 30% higher than in 2020. Main cause? The relentless push to meet AI demand, which requires new data centers built out of carbon-intensive steel, cement, chips. 52 comments
  @akshatrathi Microsoft contracted 1,443,981 metric tons of carbon removal in FY22. They also made first-of-their kind multi-year forward offtake commitments to carbon removal, which could serve as a model for scaling the nascent carbon capture industry.  @GreenFire @akshatrathi And then there's this: https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-buy-power-nuclear-fusion-company-helion-2023-05-10/ I didn't have "software megacorproation gets into the nuclear fusion game" on my bingo card, but I guess that's what's up.   @tsenov @akshatrathi Hi Ivan, I guess those 2024 results will be written… scratch that… generated by #AI :blobfoxfacepalm: but President Brad Smith says the good AI can do for the world will outweigh its environmental impact. @akshatrathi and I just recently learned that carbon emissions being a "goal" have caused massive issues with water usage, because "being carbon neutral" is not necessarily the same as "being environmentally friendly." @nus @akshatrathi @akshatrathi it's always like that.. "We plan to do XYZ"... but how many times you actually hear "We did that or even exceeded our promise".  @peterkotrcka @akshatrathi watch the John Oliver on cocoa farming for prime examples of this :( @akshatrathi that predicted line, straight down to zero. They must have spent thousands to model the process in such a complex way. Or maybe it was just PR bullsh*t... Certainly! The AI will use a trick calls the integer overflow. When the carbon emission is too high that an integer can handles, it will rollback to the negative side of the integer because computer use 2's complement. Once the statistic has become negative, they have "achieved" reduction of carbon emission.  @akshatrathi there is no AI demand. That is artificial one to push products which will fail, hard. @peteriskrisjanis @akshatrathi but not before permanently tripling the energy use of computing     @dascandy @akshatrathi   @akshatrathi most companies have revenue/gross margin/competition targets which take priority over vanity goals they tell the market as part of marketing. @akshatrathi Animal existence emitted carbon dioxide.  @akshatrathi@mastodon.green I'm kind of hoping the scenario laid out here turns out to be true, that the improvments in LLM capabilities with more training are about to level off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDUC-LqVrPU  @randomvangloboii @akshatrathi If they were serious they would extend Windows 10 support, or port Windows 11 to older machines. Preferably the former, because Windows 10 is better than 11. Causing the unnecessary replacement of working equipment is the most un-green thing the tech industry does, and they need to be beaten over the head with that fact. Where are the climate protesters outside Microsoft and Google offices?  @mike805 @akshatrathi If they had to chase every single company that paints their packages with some green, they'd have no time at all  @akshatrathi main cause is stupid bing chatbotting away as soon as you scroll around  @akshatrathi companies that are demanding the AI are not accounting for this in their net zero calculations. @akshatrathi Microsoft (and Zoom etc) are companies in one of the few industries that is probably better off with a 2020 vs 2019 baseline for carbon reductions. A lot of heavy industry and petchem majors are using 2019 as their benchmark year so they don't have to explain an immediate jump up (back to mean) from 2020 for their operations. @akshatrathi @burgerdrome it just makes me so sad to think we might be risking the only world we have to power up quite possibly the dumbest series of tech products ever  @akshatrathi ooh wait lemme guess, we are not supposed to pay attention to the rapacious use of limited resources to fuel AI *now*—the materials sunk into the ocean for “cooling” that are bleaching corals and melting ice caps so that grade schoolers can cheat on their homework— we are supposed to think about how all this sets us up for more efficient solutions in the *future* when the technology inevitably improves, amirite? The real #aiethics , make no mistake. “Demand for electricity is spiking across the Pacific Northwest and its potential to outpace our supply in the years ahead is growing, according to a new energy forecast, detailing the tricky path ahead for utilities across the region.” “My resignation was driven in part by the realization that the tech industry, including Microsoft, is increasing the profitability and competitiveness of these fossil fuel giants and perpetuating their existence when they should be phased out…It became apparent after years… that Microsoft was unwilling to enact meaningful change.” @akshatrathi And instead of actually integrating AI in any ways that people will care to use, they simply add a built-in Windows app that can't even properly use system functions, (Copilot) search summaries that take up too much space and only appear when you *don't* want them, and weakly integrate it into Office apps with barely any useful functionality, but a whole lot more server calls. Guys, just make chatbot interfaces. If I have a question, I'll ask. No annoying popups or bad features.   Then you dont find a shortcut, _you_ build solar and wind installations. Build the sun and wind microsoft, dont go buy some credit, BUILD THE POWER. BE ADULT. BE RESPONSIBLE. SEE THE WORLD.  @akshatrathi  @akshatrathi what AI “demand”? I didn’t demand any of this, leave me alone with your 8 copilots -.- |
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@akshatrathi CDR will save them. 🙃