Why do you think using energy is bad by itself? They are paying for it and they are trying to get as much renewable as they can.
Comment on Google and Microsoft consume more power than some countries
very_well_lost@lemmy.world 2 months ago
While massive energy usage means a substantial environmental impact for these tech giants, it should be noted that Google and Microsoft also generate more money than many countries. Furthermore, companies like Intel, Google, and Microsoft lead renewable energy adoption within the industry.
So fucking what? That’s like excusing a mass-murderer because he’s rich and he promised to “not kill quite as many people in the future.”
What a useless and pandering equivocation.
Tire@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
demonsword@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Why do you think using energy is bad by itself?
Building infrastructure has an environmental cost. Even if they’re building them for themselves, wasting the energy produced on AI and some other bullshit will worse our climate catastrophe while delivering nothing useful in exchange
masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
No, it’s not.
Them making money implies that they are being paid to use power, which is true. Their absolute carbon footprint is irrelevant given that most of what the carbon they use is at the request of someone else. The metric to judge them on is their carbon footprint relevant to peers.
I.e. it’s not fair to judge a cab company for driving someone somewhere (judge the person choosing to hire a cab), but it is fair to judge them if they use gas guzzlers instead of EVs.
ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 2 months ago
what are you on about, mate? who’s paying for copilot’s adoption? who’s funding the disparaging of the medieval term for a minstrel with a song?
who’s paying you for this absurd take?
masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
As of last year ~70% of software developers were using copilot or a similar AI assistant. The legal field has seen a drop off in junior hires because of AI assistants. Snapchat’s AI filters and tools have long been a huge draw for that platform (and then copied by everyone else to avoid bleeding users), and Bing saw massive user growth after integrating OpenAI.
Again, what makes you think that there’s no demand for AI?
awesome_lowlander@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
That’s interesting, do you have a source?
kurap1ka@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I think he’s partially right. Azure, AWS etc. are running workloads which would otherwise run in a bazillion smaller data centers. I still believe something is wrong as all those giants promise to run their data centers super duper green and sustainable…