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Sam Altman would like remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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“But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman said. “It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart. And not only that, it took the very widespread evolution of the 100 billion people that have ever lived and learned not to get eaten by predators and learned how to figure out science and whatever, to produce you.”

So in his view, the fair comparison is, “If you ask ChatGPT a question, how much energy does it take once its model is trained to answer that question versus a human? And probably, AI has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis, measured that way.”

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[–] 38 points 6 months ago*

Don't forget the energy needed to produce the humans who:

  • Produced research leading to the creation of LLMs.
  • Figured out how to design the GPUs that AI run on.
  • Extracted the raw materials for the chips.
  • Processed the materials into products.
  • Transported the materials and products.
  • Installed the GPUs in datacenters.
  • Built the datacenters.
  • Operate the civil infrastructure providing power and water to the datacenters.
  • Planned and designed that civil infrastructure.
  • Congregated into a single area to create the town/city where that infrastructure was planned.
  • Birthed that population of people.
  • Etc.

Hint: It's the same cumulative energy that his own stupid argument is hinged on.

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