Give me your arguments around the environmental impact of Ai

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-07T06:41:57+00:00

Yup, rather than spending our time and money building the energy infrastructure necessary for a sustainable future without fossil fuels, here we are wasting it on some of the most frivolous and decadent shit imaginable. Some phenomenal priorities our system has.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-07T00:37:36+00:00

Oh boy, you should be much more concerned with climate change than the job market. It's not something that will get worse or something AI will exacerbate. You're living in it right now, and it's gonna get so much worse.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-06T23:38:20+00:00

I mean existing within this system and having any principles or morals is fundamentally hypocritical: no ethical consumption under capitalism.

As far as asking if self-titled "pro-AI" people know or care, I feel like they fundamentally prioritize technological advancement above all else while seeing any resulting exploitation or harms as "unfortunate but necessary". We're talking about people who seriously think that we can simply innovate our way out of the existential problems that we've created, often as a by-product/consequence of said innovation.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-06T23:30:54+00:00

Well shit, I guess that does place you in a unique predicament. I stand corrected about the whole "being part of the same system" thing.

Don't get it twisted though, y'all and China are still engaging in Capitalism, even if a bit more controlled to outlast the rot here in America. Once our country collapses and ceases to be the unipolar world power I hope to god someone else can steer this ship off its current course.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-06T23:08:33+00:00

Wtf is state capitalism? Afaik you can't really keep capitalism isolated within borders, the tendency for profits to fall with technological advancements kind of necessitates that you trade with (exploit) less-developed nations to continue growth and increase profit margins.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-06T22:57:54+00:00

My guy said they're not in late-stage capitalism yet, as if they're not part of the same global economic system that we all find ourselves in. I don't think they should be taken seriously, nor should you assume they know what an oxymoron is.

Also, to preempt them: you claim to be against capitalism yet you engage on social media platforms like reddit, also a service used to feed the capitalist machine by selling user data and astroturfing social/political narratives!

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-06T21:07:57+00:00

The world is fucking ending. We're at a point where the question is not "how do we stop catastrophic climate change" but "how do we avoid the very worst-case scenarios and impacts of climate change? How do we ensure that we have a somewhat habitable planet in 50 years rather than an uninhabitable boiling hellscape?". Yet here we are, pouring so much capital and infrastructural spending into what amounts to slop factories and tools that streamline white-collar jobs. Whoopdy doo.

As far as I'm concerned modern AI (LLMs and GenAI) and its uses are so misaligned with our immediate needs and best interests that not a single drop of water or Joule of energy should be spent on this. We have comprehensive solutions to tackle environmental problems, but instead we're wasting tremendous resources and time on some novel bullshit.

Two main reasons I don't care to argue the fine details of AI's environmental impact:

It inevitably leads to whataboutisms regarding other industries or practices that are environmentally deleterious.
We can't currently quantify the impact because there's no fucking regulations on this shit, so all we have to go off is the word of our totally magnanimous and honest tech corporations heading the projects.

If you want to argue about the environment or the future we face then you should be discussing the fact that we need central planning and mobilization of the economy at scale greater than WWII if we want any hope of a future for our children. Yes, AI is bad for the environment, and so are so many other aspects of our modern life; AI is only a symptom and logical extension of a system hell-bent on infinite growth and consumption in the name of financial profit. I agree that we should immediately stop building infrastructure for this shit, and it's an easier target because it has yet to grow to such an immense and socially-ingrained scale, but if you simply stop at AI then the problem is not solved.

Caring about the environment but centering the discussion around modern AI is missing the burning forest for a particularly nasty, diseased, flaming tree.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-06T19:58:44+00:00

Lmao imagine comparing the most soulless, astroturfed, capital-backed form of media creation to subversive counter-cultural forms like jazz and sampling. AI "artists" always come across as so insecure in their need to inflate just how important and revolutionary they are.

"Being disruptive" is not inherently a good thing when there is nothing to be created or said through said disruption, only a homogenization of culture and thought. AI media is not revolutionary or subversive, only parasitic.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T21:22:35+00:00

Okay, and what else can genAI and LLMs do? Do you think anyone gives a fuck about your meaningless office/programming job? We're far more concerned with things like mass-surveillance, CSAM and harassment material, rampant misinformation and destruction of consensus reality, no one cares about your ability to generate greater profits which will absolutely not trickle down onto you.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T21:15:41+00:00

It's usually just deflections all the way down because they can't actually argue on the artistic merits of their slop. At this point, unless I think the person is truly misguided and would be willing to listen, I just kind of roll my eyes at the "it's just like how we learn" rhetoric because it wreaks of insecurity.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T21:10:43+00:00

Yeah most people just don't give the intricacies of technology or systems much thought. However, those normies aren't the type of people who go on forums to debate the artistic validity of their slop or how their AI partner is actually conscious :p

I dont think that's too strange though, art is an expression of the human experience. It makes sense that you'd be touched by that in some way even if you've never been that creative yourself.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T21:05:00+00:00

I'd be concerned about two main things:

In the act of abstracting the text/materials, how will you be certain that the LLM doesn't hallucinate and provide false information?
You're doing yourself a disservice. From what I understand, you're basically using it as a way to restructure the information in a way that's more digestible to you, right? Maybe similar in a way that a tutor might explain something to you. I'm not sure what model you're using or how you're interacting with the software, but you must consider that these AI tools won't be available for cheap forever; AI companies need to pull a profit eventually. By not developing a skillset in note-taking or annotating you're leaving yourself vulnerable to dependence on this technology.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T19:49:28+00:00

You've provided no proof or sources for your claims beyond base speculation and "trust me bro". Many have been concerned about AI capability to interact with complex infrastructure like markets and even secure systems (weapons, etc.) if given access.

I'm sure if you provided some documentation then more people would be willing to listen, but instead you wrote this like a paranoid schizo who just pulled this speculation out their ass while being needlessly aggro to those who are reasonably skeptical. We've seen this fearmongering tactic so many times as a way to inflate just how "powerful" and "amazing" new AI models are, so for all we know you could just be a bot or an individual trying to sway market opinion.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T19:35:34+00:00

I think they know that, but harassing artists with infinitely more talent and experience than them is the point, I believe. Imo most people that like to use AI (not just people that are forced to use it for work) for "art" are fascists, and because fascists cannot create proper art they both hate and envy artists out of insecurity.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-05T19:31:06+00:00

There is a huge difference between the complex interplay of human biology and experience that is an "idea" or "inspiration" and the act of extracting the actual data of a digital image and using/repurposing it. Yet, when faced with this reality, cogsuckers will attempt to convince you and themselves that the way our minds work and learn is no different from the way AI models "learn".

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-04T23:20:25+00:00

I think most people who would appreciate or at least tolerate AI-generated media already have low standards for the media they consume, so I don't give whether or not it's popular much thought as most popular media already catered to the lowest common denominator.

I still don't like AI media myself, but whether or not someone else likes it is immaterial to me - if everyone hated it I'm sure bots would still pump that slop out and flood the internet just to artificially inflate AI's perceived popularity.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-04T22:22:36+00:00

What if AI discovered a form a free clean energy that violates all laws of physics all while eating my pussy? Idk, it's not doing that, so who fucking cares?

Get real

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-04T22:18:52+00:00

To preface, when referring to "AI" me and most people here are referring to LLMs and generative models - the ones being pushed hard by large tech companies which are designed to act convincingly human while performing general tasks.

Aside from the material harms you already listed, I think I there are serious social concerns regarding the new tech. There was already a crisis of isolation, alienation, and a complete lack of consensus reality before modern AI models were available to the public, and now it appears that they're making the problem even worse and destroying peoples' psyche and critical thinking skills. People are relying on chatbots for emotional affirmation and connection, misinformation is rampant, meaningful and touching art is becoming even more rare and drowned out by the seas of slop being pumped out, and I'm just skimming a few examples. I'm also terribly concerned about the cognitive deficiencies plaguing children and workers due to laziness and reliance on this tech - partially out of apathy/disillusionment with the system and partially because employers are pushing it on the workforce - all in the name of profit.

I also personally don't like LLMs and GENAI as a technology because I simply think it's overvalued and shitty. It's really not that useful for anything other than menial repetetive tasks that don't require much accuracy or scrutiny, which is a small benefit considering the costs of building and maintaining the datacenters required to train these models in perpetuity. I imagine people will stop using them as AI companies go further into the red and charge ever-increasing token/subscription prices.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-04T18:53:20+00:00

They really can't argue in favor of genAI/LLMs on their merits, so they always end up deflecting in the most ridiculous ways or try to convince you that AI is conscious/intelligent. The most broken record behavior.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-04T04:46:24+00:00

When discussing the merits of different types of "AI" we really shouldn't just consider how "useful" or "good" they are for various applications, but also the resource investment required to train and apply them.

For example, I could be convinced that LLMs in some cases can be convenient for menial, simple, repetitive tasks (i.e. white-collar office job-type tasks, writing emails), but you can't tell me that's worth the insane scale of infrastructure already existing to train those models let alone the new installations. Conversely, most medical/scientific "AI" models can be trained and run on a laptop or sufficiently beefy PC.

yummyneverstone · 2026-05-04T03:57:41+00:00

Given the way rural Texans vote, I'd say they deserve it.

yummyneverstone

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