Is AI More Sustainable if You Generate it Underwater? Leave a comment
AI information facilities are so scorching proper now. Every time generative AI companies churn by way of their giant language fashions to make a chatbot reply one in all your questions, it takes a substantial amount of processing energy to sift by way of all that information. Doing so can use huge quantities of power, which implies the proliferation of AI is elevating questions on how sustainable this tech truly is and the way it impacts the ecosystems round it. Some firms suppose they’ve an answer: working these information facilities underwater, the place they’ll use the encompassing seawater to chill and higher management the temperature of the arduous working GPUs inside. However it seems simply plopping one thing into the ocean is not at all times a foolproof plan for lowering its environmental impression.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED writers Paresh Dave and Reece Rogers be part of the present to speak about their reporting on underwater information facilities and the way the race to energy AI techniques is taking its toll on the atmosphere.
Present Notes
Learn Paresh and Reece’s story concerning the plan to place an underwater information middle within the San Francisco Bay. Learn Reece’s tales about how that is AI’s hyper-consumption period and methods to wade by way of all of the AI hype. Learn Lauren’s story concerning the social community inhabited solely by bots. Learn Karen Hao’s story in The Atlantic about how firms like Microsoft are taking water from the desert to make use of for cooling down AI information facilities. Right here’s the Black Cat substack article concerning the character Harper from Trade. Comply with all of WIRED’s AI and local weather protection.
Suggestions
Paresh recommends trying out cookbooks out of your native library. Reece recommends the soundtrack of the primary Twilight film for all of your Fall feels. Lauren recommends the HBO present Trade. Mike recommends Anna Weiner’s profile of bicycle designer Grant Peterson in The New Yorker.
Reece Rogers will be discovered on social media @thiccreese. Paresh Dave is @peard33. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight@heads.social. Bling the principle hotline at @GadgetLab. The present is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Photo voltaic Keys.
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