|
Dr. Damien P. Williams (Temporarily Logged Off)@wolvendamien.bsky.social |
Current estimates say that every prompt you give a generative "AI" system— not each session, every PROMPT— is like pouring a 16 oz bottle of water onto the ground. This is a fact that goes somewhere in every talk i give, now, & i always see audience members looking it up… and then looking horrified
49 replies 1790 reposts 2668 likes
|
Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson
@hilaryrosed.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Do you have a source you recommend for this estimate? I'd like to spread awareness of how thirsty AI is...
1 replies 0 reposts 10 likes
|
gertrudious
@erinchristinebell.bsky.social
[ View ] |
1 replies 4 reposts 23 likes
|
|
gertrudious
@erinchristinebell.bsky.social
[ View ] |
0 replies 4 reposts 16 likes
|
|
gertrudious
@erinchristinebell.bsky.social
[ View ] |
adding a few other articles i was reading to this thread:
oecd.ai/en/wonk/how-...
1 replies 5 reposts 23 likes
|
@LuLuRoche
@luluroche.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Thank you for spreading the word
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Ralph
@ralphhhenson.bsky.social
[ View ] |
How much water does it take to create a bit coin?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Dr. Damien P. Williams (Temporarily Logged Off)
@wolvendamien.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Now for ChatGPT in specific it can range anywhere from 5 questions to 50 to hit that level of water consumption; depends on the density of representation of associated tokens in the training data (how much it's been trained on stuff connected to your prompt); but before you think "maybe not so bad"…
2 replies 27 reposts 194 likes
|
Goldy Boi
@goldyboi.bsky.social
[ View ] |
How's that compare to something like bitcoin?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
AaronMFMrs. Dalloway
@aaronmfm.bsky.social
[ View ] |
How does this compare to computing usage generally? Is a reading a tweet comparable to running a prompt?
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Beezchurger and Flies with a Dr. Pepper
@keffy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I deeply resent that I can't just not use it, I have to go out of my way to not use it, because if I'm not careful typing shit into a search engine now, it'll vomit up some AI prompt response NO MATTER WHAT, EVERY TIME, just reiterating what the first couple of search responses say.
1 replies 7 reposts 21 likes
|
Bearded Pip
@beardedpip.bsky.social
[ View ] |
And that’s just the water, not the electricity or e-waste.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Brandon Williams
@stupidartpunk.bsky.social
[ View ] |
That’s insane! I had read the water usage was a lot but not per prompt!?
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Carnotaurus
@carnotaurus.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Is that purely for the inference or has prior training been baked into the estimate?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
DR Drew Pinskeet
@davidralin.bsky.social
[ View ] |
And streaming a movie?
earth.org/water-needed...
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
Shomer Shabbat R211
@reallyliketrains.bsky.social
[ View ] |
that's not a lot. the efficient toilet at the pool is 1 gallon per flush, and 1/8th of a flush is really not that much
2 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Formica Dinette
@formicadinette.bsky.social
[ View ] |
📌
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Polonius210
@polonius210.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Does this estimate include the pre-training somehow, or is that extra?
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Wolf Tamer
@wolftamer.cafe
[ View ] |
So we really haven't left nfts behind. It's pretty much the same thing but with a different coat of paint.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Dr Surekha Davies (she/her)
@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I can't believe we're here. It's worse than The Matrix.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
inkbotkowalski, MSc.
@inkbotkowalski.bsky.social
[ View ] |
But if it's not broken up into its molecular components, doesn't this water then simply go back into the water cycle? (I keep seeing this emphasis on water consumption; it's easier for me to understand that generative ""AI"" consumes a shitton of power)
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
Nicholas Weaver
@ncweaver.skerry-tech.com
[ View ] |
That estimate doesn't pass the smell test to me: EG, following bloomberg to a power/query estimate places each query at ~4 watt-hours per query.
archive.is/if7hf
There is no way it takes half a kg of water to cool both the computers and the power plants for the generation.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
Francis Serpa
@fcserpa.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Wow, that's disturbing
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Profit Greenly
@profitgreenly.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I remember being outraged when I learned that the Google's of legal research (Lexis and Westlaw) charged every time you clicked search. There was no technical basis for such charges, just greed. For LLMs though it would make sense for every click to cost real $$$. It must once the VC cash runs out.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Death will not release you!𓅽
@7leaguebootdisk.bsky.social
[ View ] |
And enough electricity to boil it I'd think.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Comfortably Numb
@numb.comfortab.ly
[ View ] |
Incredulous how some people, who consider themselves smart, proclaim that AI is the best thing that happen to the environment because "what else could drive development of green renewable energy than its biggest consumer."
3 replies 2 reposts 23 likes
|
Brossentia/Digby @ SGDQ, AC
@brossentia.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Humans are naturally bad at scales. Agriculture across the world uses 2 quadrillion gallons of water annually, and about 40% of that is straight up wasted. How does this compare to agriculture?
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
@shirleydunk.bsky.social
[ View ] |
But... the water for cooling and steam generation is not poured out on the ground, it is recycled.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Alzamon || アルサもン
@alzamon.art
[ View ] |
The big trouble with the environmental impact of cloud technology —AI being part of it— is precisely its invisibility to the masses, which only see “magic” happening. Summer in my corner of the world has felt hotter and longer this year than it’s ever been. How’s that for invisibility…
2 replies 2 reposts 16 likes
|
Araphel (he/him) 🏳️⚧️🌈🇵🇭🇮🇪🐈⬛
@araphel.wtf
[ View ] |
At first thought I was like "So I'm watering the plants by using AI?" Because honestly that was my first idea because I grow plants, even though you didn't mean it that way. Just a possibility of perspective difference for your analysis
2 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Beejieweejie she/her
@beejieweejie.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Yipes. I - as an analogue word merchant - only drink half that, and can run from about 8am until midnight on 16 ounces. Give me your wordless masses, longing for verbosity!
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Mark Major
@shmitz.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I may not be up to speed on all of this, but this is the first time I've seen the energy demands of a technology put in terms of *specifically* water instead of electricity in general. Is that normal these days?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
🎸Paul🎹
@paul.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Minor nit - the water used for cooling and electricity production isn’t potable water. It’s not as though it robbing people of drinking water, it’s literally just used to move heat around and doesn’t interrupt the earths water cycle. I do agree with you about energy consumption tho, excessive.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
Mariah
@veggiemusubi.bsky.social
[ View ] |
📌
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Steve Joffe
@stevejoffe.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Hanging with my cousin who works in AI for one of the big tech companies--who says something similar.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Dan
@sulik2.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Sweet fucking hell that's insane.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Scribble Nabs
@stallinguist.bsky.social
[ View ] |
And now some search engines automatically give "AI answers" as part of their search results
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Ostrich, Booster Pack Blueskyer
@justostrich.com
[ View ] |
Still pales in comparison to agricultural use
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Patrick Hardy
@patrickdhardy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Brb, going to ask ChatGPT if it's true that every prompt is like pouring a 16oz bottle of water on the ground
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
shadeygreyskies
@shadeygreyskies.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Would you mind if I cross-posted this over on Spoutible?
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
Kai
@kaikronfield.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I suspect that existing climate models have not taken the boom in data centers into account when hypothesizing the future of our warming planet.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Widgett Walls
@widgett.bsky.social
[ View ] |
My brain immediately thought of that ground becoming swampland, then becoming populated with mosquitoes, then becoming a breeding ground for malaria. I’m sure that still works for the metaphor somehow but I’m trying not to go there.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
Matthew 🍔
@beingreleased.bsky.social
[ View ] |
What does that mean?
2 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Lux in the Bronx 🎗️
@rlux.nyc
[ View ] |
Is that the best example? Water is not destroyed by pouring it on the ground, it either soaks into the land, runs off into a body of water, and / or evaporates into the atmosphere. The bottle is waste but the water stays in the ecosystem.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Matthieu SB
@matthieusb.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I have a hard time understanding that. Once used for cooling, isn't the water just hot ? Or does it evaporate ? (Which would make more sense seeing what you are saying about wasting water)
2 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Jessica Kagan (has breached containment)
@planepackedjess.bsky.social
[ View ] |
It's all fun and games until the utility companies ratchet up these companies' water bills... and the tech companies use this (or even just the threat of it) to ratchet up the cost to the user.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
T
@fathermudgeon.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Not being negative. Actually wondering. Pouring in the ground MIGHT nourish life. Is there any chance with that 16 Oz and ai?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Sparrow
@sharasellarine.bsky.social
[ View ] |
If you poured it on the ground it would (at least theoretically) water a plant. Unless you're pouring into the middle of the Sahara I guess.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
Iscerio 🌿
@iscerio.bsky.social
[ View ] |
For Europeans: that's almost half a liter or 473 ml.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes