Does the physical location of the hardware really matter?
Single individuals driving do not contribute much to pollution, but collectively they do.
Shifting the hardware from a data center to your house is great for privacy and I wholeheartedly agree with that, but unless demand goes down the same or perhaps even more energy will be consumed. It’ll just be consumed elsewhere.
Using AI to make shitposts probably isn’t the best use of energy but then again almost nothing we do is because nobody wants to live in a society with no hobbies.
It does not but that wasn’t my point. It was that not all forms of AI usage are the same. The same way someone driving around an EV that they charge with solar power isn’t the same as someone driving a 1969 oil guzzler (or something equivalent). Local usage more often than not means efficient models, low energy consumption, and little difference to other computer tasks like gaming or video editing. But when the conversation is around AI, there is always the implicit expectation that it’s the worst of the worst.
Does the physical location of the hardware really matter?
Single individuals driving do not contribute much to pollution, but collectively they do.
Shifting the hardware from a data center to your house is great for privacy and I wholeheartedly agree with that, but unless demand goes down the same or perhaps even more energy will be consumed. It’ll just be consumed elsewhere.
Using AI to make shitposts probably isn’t the best use of energy but then again almost nothing we do is because nobody wants to live in a society with no hobbies.
It does not but that wasn’t my point. It was that not all forms of AI usage are the same. The same way someone driving around an EV that they charge with solar power isn’t the same as someone driving a 1969 oil guzzler (or something equivalent). Local usage more often than not means efficient models, low energy consumption, and little difference to other computer tasks like gaming or video editing. But when the conversation is around AI, there is always the implicit expectation that it’s the worst of the worst.