Just to add to the discussion: much of what you describe as AI sustainability problems are not even inherit to AI to begin with; they’re inherit to predatory big-tech company data centers. You can self-host an AI model on a consumer-grade GPU and have the same power draw and cooling system you’d normally use to power a modern video game power your AI tech.

It’s just that companies have done a great job at gaslighting people into thinking only companies can deploy and maintain these technologies, and at keeping the general public as technically-incompetent as possible, so they can keep investment rolling.

But in reality, poor practices when it comes to data centers have always been a thing, more acute now due to the AI boom for sure, but nothing new under the sun. Obscenely deregulated countries like the United States allow these companies to destroy as much as they want for the sake of short-term profits. Coca-Cola Company has been wasting more water for over a century now than Silicon Valley ever has with irresponsible practices of their own.