andymasley

7 ms·

1.
by andymasley 10mo ago
I based the data center numbers on the updated post, not the retracted post
2.
by andymasley 10mo ago
Why then is there a general negative correlation between the cost of potable water and the population of an area in places where freshwater is plentiful? There's a lot of literature on water economics and this pattern usually holds.
3.
by andymasley 10mo ago
Well that's why I cover things at the national, local, and personal level separately. I think if this were any other industry using 2% of a county's water you wouldn't have much of a reaction. In most countries only ~20% of t
4.
by andymasley 10mo ago
Just as an example, Loudoun County has the most data center concentration in the world by a wide margin, and also has significantly lower water prices than the Virginia average. Seems like they've been able to build out huge new water
5.
The AI water issue is fake(andymasley.substack.com)
12 points by andymasley 11mo ago|2 comments
6.
What a Data Center Is(andymasley.substack.com)
2 points by andymasley 11mo ago|0 comments
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Contra the UK government, don't delete your old photos and emails to save water(andymasley.substack.com)
3 points by andymasley 1y ago|0 comments
8.
by andymasley 1y ago
The dictionary definition of useful is “Able to be used for a practical purpose or in several ways.” How am I going against this definition?
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by andymasley 1y ago
This is all so strange. You're reading the exact opposite meanings into my really simple posts and comments. I don't know how anyone could read the post and come away thinking I believe anyone questioning chatbots thinks they&#x27
10.
by andymasley 1y ago
Basically everything I think is here, I think this is all pretty simple and straightforward: https://open.substack.com/pub/andymasley/p/ai-can-be-bad-ove... If you bought a hammer and never used it, so it nev
11.
by andymasley 1y ago
I'm really confused about what you're reading into this. I don't "equate" nuclear weapons with video games, I say "here are two completely unrelated things that I'd consider net bad overall, but useful in
12.
by andymasley 1y ago
I think basically everyone using tobacco knows it's bad for them. They're not stupid. This is another example of people being basically aware of their situations.
13.
by andymasley 1y ago
I'm not making a claim about whether they're good overall or not, I'm saying 1) Reasonable people can think they're bad overall. 2) It's not reasonable to say they're literally always useless.
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by andymasley 1y ago
Sorry this is pretty straightforward. If I'm Kim Jong Un, a nuclear weapon is extremely useful to me. That doesn't mean I think overall a world where nuclear weapons exist is good. I'm confused why you think "useful&quot
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by andymasley 1y ago
I mean I say in the post I think it's bad that people are using LLMs to cheat.
16.
by andymasley 1y ago
I think each are net bad and shouldn't exist yes, but I also think each is useful in specific contexts. Not sure why that's not relevant, it's a direct example of stuff that's useful but net bad.
17.
by andymasley 1y ago
Sorry the energy comment is ridiculously out of context. I've written a deep dive on how small that number is. Do you complain when YouTube videos or video games use similar amounts of energy? Your laptop uses the same energy every 3 m
18.
by andymasley 1y ago
There's a ton of stuff I think is useful in specific circumstances but can be bad overall. -Video games: Provide fun, but probably overall bad for society bc people waste too much time on them. -Alcohol: Most drinkers get a lot of valu
19.
by andymasley 1y ago
I say in the post I lose respect for people who specifically claim that a billion people are using an app that adds absolutely nothing to their lives each week, not people who dislike chatbots for other reasons (hallucinations etc.). So I t
20.
by andymasley 1y ago
I say in the post I lose respect for people who specifically claim that a billion people are using an app that adds absolutely nothing to their lives each week, not people who dislike chatbots for other reasons (hallucinations etc.). So I t
21.
by andymasley 1y ago
Hi I’m the author, pretty confused about how you can come away with this reading. I say at the end that a lot of AI criticism is correct, there’s just this specific type I think is lazy
22.
by andymasley 1y ago
Hi I’m the author, I agree people believing AI hallucinations is a big problem and will edit the post to clarify
23.
by andymasley 2y ago
I added in the article that I think this is all the wrong way to think about environmentalism anyway and that people should spend most of their time working on systematically changing the energy grid to renewables. But I keep meeting people
24.
by andymasley 2y ago
The point of the article WAS to debate someone criticizing something they don't understand. AI as a whole is using a lot of energy and we should think about the environmental impacts, but I pretty regularly meet people who think that e
25.
by andymasley 2y ago
I wrote the article. Water use is used really ambiguously by people talking about data centers and LLMs in general. To get the numbers I just took the estimated water used per kWh ( https://www.sunbirddcim.com/glossary/w
26.
by andymasley 2y ago
If we're trying to figure out a reasonable number for how much energy a single ChatGPT search uses, it seems weird to factor in all future training of all future models. It would be like trying to figure out the carbon cost of a single
27.
by andymasley 2y ago
I specifically mentioned in the article that I think it's mostly a waste of time to worry about your personal carbon footprint and you should aim for big systematic change instead, but because so many people seem to be worried about th
28.
by andymasley 2y ago
I am to put it mildly not an e/acc and referenced being very worried about other risks from advanced AI in the article.
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by andymasley 2y ago
Most of that money went into infrastructure + human talent, with energy costs at the tail end. I'd be happy to include the energy costs of producing the materials, feeding the humans and moving them around etc. but those aren't us
30.
by andymasley 2y ago
If I'm going to be accused of rationalizing my laziness I need at least one source saying my numbers are off. I'm going off the numbers provided by environmentalist critics of ChatGPT. I hope that by sharing my post people feel ex

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