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@niekvdpas To give an even vaguer answer. A fairly limited LLM can be run reasonably well on my four-year-old laptop. A much more capable model can be run on a machine, such as a Mac Studio. This does consume energy, but not very much. Especially given that typical LLM use does not imply sustained full-load operation.
Compared to these examples, optimized hardware or software, scale, better utilization, etc. will be more efficient.
@niekvdpas As far as is known, AI companies do not publish detailed data, so there are more or less plausible guesstimates. Andy Masley (see link) has written several solid articles on the topic. Granted, he is just another person on the internet, but I find his argument reasonably convincing. This is not about specific numbers, but about a rough estimate of the order of magnitude of LLM energy consumption and how that compares to overall personal energy use
The numbers clearly show this is a pointless distraction for the climate movement
(andymasley.substack.com)
@siracusa @vmachiel Energy usage is also often overstated. Nobody is arguing that AI does not consume energy, or that aggregate demand does not add up. But this has to be evaluated in relation to the use and that it is spread across hundreds of millions of users. When broken down per individual and compared with what a typical Western European or American uses energy for, AI usage is negligible.
@vmachiel @siracusa AI is already tremendously useful for a large number of people. Yes, there are many concrete and hypothetical drawbacks, but even if none of the promised upsides ever materialize and even if models never improve beyond today’s level – it is still immensely useful. Collapsing all of that into “useless” is simply not true.
@TechRemarker @atpfm That being said, since Google added support for Live Activities and implemented “getting directions without starting navigation,” I think they’ve out-Apple’d Apple in terms of convenience and ease of use for both walking and cycling navigation. Which, admittedly, is probably an edge case for many Americans.
@TechRemarker @atpfm I’d love for Google Maps to be able to take over the Home Screen the way Apple Maps does. This would be especially helpful for navigation on foot or by bicycle. Aside from a nicer UI and better system integration, that’s probably the only reason I still try Apple Maps from time to time.
