There is a point where this kind of a pragmatic/contrarian take doesn't stick anymore. Is the net benefit of AI worth the cost of losing natural resources for billions? That's the question you're supposed to ponder, like, it's actually up in the air and not clear cut?
It's worth flipping the question around to explore how you actually think.
So rather than ask "What is the impact of AI?" which narrows your focus to the impact of AI, if you really care about the natural resources you should be asking "What has a big impact on natural resources?"
If that's AI, and you're ignoring all the things that have a far greater impact on what you claim to care about, then you should ask if you're really just looking for things to complain about around AI, and natural resources are a convenient excuse.
If you care about water resources and you're not a vegan campaigning against the beef industry, but you're focusing on AI, then you have a degree of cognitive dissonance.
Except that those are very old, very entrenched industries. We are still in the phase where we have a chance of setting some rules for "AI" before it becomes fully entrenched.
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There is a point where this kind of a pragmatic/contrarian take doesn't stick anymore. Is the net benefit of AI worth the cost of losing natural resources for billions? That's the question you're supposed to ponder, like, it's actually up in the air and not clear cut?
It's worth flipping the question around to explore how you actually think.
So rather than ask "What is the impact of AI?" which narrows your focus to the impact of AI, if you really care about the natural resources you should be asking "What has a big impact on natural resources?"
If that's AI, and you're ignoring all the things that have a far greater impact on what you claim to care about, then you should ask if you're really just looking for things to complain about around AI, and natural resources are a convenient excuse.
For example, the largest data centre in the US uses approximately the same amount of water as 2 burger restaurants if you include the water used to raise the beef used in the burgers. (https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/from-tokens-to-burgers...)
If you care about water resources and you're not a vegan campaigning against the beef industry, but you're focusing on AI, then you have a degree of cognitive dissonance.
Except that those are very old, very entrenched industries. We are still in the phase where we have a chance of setting some rules for "AI" before it becomes fully entrenched.