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Gerry McGovern

"A report from Morgan Stanley suggests the datacenter industry is on track to emit 2.5 billion tons by 2030, which is three times higher than the predictions if generative AI had not come into play. The extra demand from GenAI will reportedly lead to a rise in emissions from 200 million tons this year to 600 million tons by 2030, thanks largely to the construction of more data centers to keep up with the demand for cloud services."

techradar.com/pro/generative-a

25 comments
Frank Heijkamp

@gerrymcgovern For people who feel ashamed to fly because of the pollution flying causes. Please consider the fact that the world IT-infrastructure consumes the same amount of energy and causes the same amount of pollution as the entire aviation industry together. By the 2030 using AI will be thrice as polluting as flying.

Think about that!

Bill Tschumy

@alterelefant @gerrymcgovern Now I feel ashamed about using the internet as well as about flying. Thanks.

Frank Heijkamp

@btschumy @gerrymcgovern It depends how you use 'the internet'. The use of generative AI has by far the most impact.

iris ✿ sandwalker

@gerrymcgovern it will also create a barrage of new #ewaste for all the required hardware upgrades and network changes 😒

GreenerFutures

@gerrymcgovern yet another very good reason for us to be rejecting generative (derivative) AI.

#climateemergency #ai

Ainiriand

@gerrymcgovern can't a datacenter be powered with renewables? We should focus on demanding that for new ones.

David is impermanen_

@ainiriand @gerrymcgovern the data center power consumption is growing faster than renewable power generation so some states are having to reopen coal plants to avoid power outages. This idiotic “AI revolution” is undoing the little progress we’ve made on decarbonizing the economy. washingtonpost.com/business/in

mikkel

@ainiriand @gerrymcgovern even if demand could keep up, the ewaste is not just a disposal problem but one that obviously generates huge amount of pollution in production of materials and in manufacturing

Max

@gerrymcgovern more brainfuck is less carfuck - but I didn't expect this to be that expensive....

FediThing 🏳️‍🌈

@gerrymcgovern

For god's sake please stop using and building AI/LLM. It is literally killing our planet.

Jennifer

@gerrymcgovern this really makes me mad, especially since all this AI crap is totally unnecessary!!

Nemesis

@gerrymcgovern We are so on track to living in Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin

Lars Christiansen

@gerrymcgovern @maxd Who/what will pay for all that electricity? Todays data says that existing electric infrastructure will not support the load.

wendy boooOocek for Kamala

@gerrymcgovern Public Service Announcement: don’t let the unimposing term “data centers” lull you into complacency. These are burning hellfires of wasteful energy & water use, as businesses attempt to find some reasonable value for AI & LLMs.

paul

@wendinoakland @gerrymcgovern

they have succumbed to a mindset where “winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way. It’s as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.

theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/

the most environmentally friendly thing we could do is jail them for crimes against the planet.

med-mastodon.com/@amiserabilis

@wendinoakland @gerrymcgovern

they have succumbed to a mindset where “winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way. It’s as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.

theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/

Ame

@gerrymcgovern It might be my bad research abilities but I'm now 3 sources deep and cannot find out where these numbers came from 😭

YHANCI~1.TXT

@ame @gerrymcgovern same, i've gone through a dozen of article talking about the Morgan Stanley report and none of them is ever linking to the original, which I couldn't find on the Morgan Stanley website either. I won't blame our (re)search abilities though, just their unwillingness to make hypertext links

Matthew Walton

@gerrymcgovern this is assuming generative AI ever becomes useful...

Richard

@gerrymcgovern and on top of all that, I believe there isn’t even any real demand for AI in the first place

millennial falcon

@strawstack @gerrymcgovern plenty of inflationary speculative hype tho.
short them ai stocks, make a kiiiiillliiiiing.

Lien Rag

@strawstack

Not that I love SALAMI (like it should be called) but yes, there is an important demand for it.
Not necessarily a reasonable demand, but a demand there is.

@gerrymcgovern

Alkaris 🏳️‍⚧️ :verified:

@gerrymcgovern Time to start pulling the plugs on all these AI focused businesses.

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