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The AI Investment Boom

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271 points m-hodges | 2 comments | 20 Oct 24 14:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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_heimdall ◴[21 Oct 24 12:44 UTC] No.41903569[source]▶
I'm always surprised when articles and discussions similar to this lead to anything other than the realization of how absurd it is that we have found ourselves investing unimaginable resources into a LLMs while simultaneously claiming that we've ruined the planet and it could be as little as 5 or 6 years from fundamental damage.

Eventually we have to either give up on the hopes of what could come from LLMs with enough investment, or give up on very loud but apparently hollow arguments related to the damage we are causing to the planet.

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1. dwaltrip ◴[21 Oct 24 19:04 UTC] No.41907288[source]▶
Heard of the solar boom? It’s growing exponentially.

Also, it’s not like there is one person in charge of the whole world deciding what happens.

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2. _heimdall ◴[22 Oct 24 00:14 UTC] No.41909905[source]▶
> Heard of the solar boom? It’s growing exponentially

Solar is a whole other can of worms. I wouldn't expect it to be too useful for LLMs demanding such high energy inputs. Solar is only produced for around 5 hours per day depending on latitude. For every megawatt of energy needed 24/7 for a GPU farm you would need around 5 megawatts of solar and 20 megawatts of storage (ignoring losses along the way due to transmission, heat, and conversions).

> Also, it’s not like there is one person in charge of the whole world deciding what happens.

Totally agree and I didn't mean to imply that. The list is surprisingly small though. More importantly, many of those in charge of the main LLM companies have themselves spoken about how important it is to reduce our environmental impact, going so far as setting very specific targets for their companies to reduce or eliminate their net impact. Those goals all but disappeared after they pivoted to LLM products.