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Please ELI5 the arguments people use to claim it's possible to use AI/LLMs ethically, locally, openly etc. (piefed.social)
submitted 4 hours ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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I usually don't even understand the lingo they use. "Open-weighted" is the most recent one, then it usually goes down to specific "models" that everybody is supposed to know about.

These are my thoughts (I will stick to the vague "it" for now, but of course therein lies another question: "and how does all this apply to various specialised AIs"):

  • Is it really feasible to run it 100% locally? I know there's plenty of people with very powerful rigs indeed, but still. Or are 99% of these people really saying "it would, in theory, be possible to run that locally, therefore your concerns are invalid"?
  • If yes to the previous: the software doesn't come from nowhere and ultimately still relies on gas-turbine-powered datacenters and stolen IP and stolen personal data, no?

If what I wrote above is true, what exactly are people arguing when they say it's still possible to use LLMs ethically or true to FOSS philosophy, because ... ???

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[–] 8 points 3 hours ago* (1 child)

I'll take a crack at it.

I run AI on an old Nvidia p40 purchased online for less than $200. The models I run on it came predominantly from Chinese companies and groups. On balance, they:

  • use much less fossil fuel in producing these LLMs than their Western counterparts

  • produce models that run much better on lower end consumer hardware

As for training data, the inputs used to create these models, it varies greatly but the most popular line, Qwen, Came from the company's own data from operating such huge networks and systems for so long

I really fail to see how any of that is worse than playing a video game.

None of this takes away from the very real issues around data center build out and Western companies using the systems to scare people and continue an economic bubble. That's all true and bad. But there's nuance. Not all AI is created equal

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  • [–] 1 point 6 minutes ago

    use much less fossil fuel in producing these LLMs than their Western counterparts

    Utterly false, given that all the decent Chinese models (especially Qwen) are distilled from Western frontier models.

    They literally could not exist without the enormously carbon emissive western models existing first to train them.

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