GoKawiilWhat's Wrong With AI?
The opinions expressed in this blog post are mine and mine alone, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of my employer.
I recently started working at a software company, and I was surprised at how ubiquitous AI was. Nearly everyone uses it, but nobody seems to be aware of the problems it causes. So, I've decided to write this blog post, and discuss the various issues with AI as it is currently, ranging from verifiable problems that exist today (with sources!), to the personal opinions and thoughts of myself and others.
A few disclaimers before we start:
First, when I use the term "AI", I am referring specifically to LLMs, image generators, or other forms of machine learning algorithms that are referred to as "AI" in common parlance. I am not referring to Artificial Intelligence as a concept, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), or machine learning in general.
Second, I am not strictly against AI. In fact, I think it is an incredibly useful tool in certain contexts. My stance is briefly summed up by saying, "I am not against AI, I am against the business practices of the companies producing AI, and the practices of the companies and governments that use AI."
Finally, if you are an individual who uses AI, please do not interpret this as an attack against you: I do not know your circumstances or reasons for using AI, and therefore, I cannot fairly judge your use (or non-use) of it. This post is intended to be informational, not judgmental.
Having said that, let's get started!
Energy Use
Asking ChatGPT a question uses approximately 10x as much energy as a traditional search engine (this excludes AI-supplemented search engines, like Google's "AI Overview" which incurs the energy use of a traditional search query plus the energy use of AI summarization). Indeed, AI uses so much electricity that the U.S. government wants to build more nuclear reactors.
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