What You Can Do as a Web Builder on Earth Day

“This is Fine” meme of a room on fire, but the earth is at the burning table with coffee.

One easy thing you can do for the earth is not use “AI” tools.

Consider this as a programmer, web developer, web designer, copywriter, webmaster, etc. The tools include anything branded as generative AI, LLMs, computer vision tools, Copilot, ChatGPT, Bard, Grok, Dall-e, Midjourney, and so on.

If you are also a user who needs to use one of these tools to generate an image description or simplify the reading level of content because the author has created a disabling experience, I am not including you in this broad sweep.

I think Molly White summarizes the current utility of these tools quite well:

[…] they are handy in the same way that it might occasionally be useful to delegate some tasks to an inexperienced and sometimes sloppy intern.

As a bonus, interns are powered by sandwiches. Versus pouring gasoline (almost literally) into the fire consuming our home.

There are plenty of articles demonstrating how ineffective these “tools” are for production-ready code. We know they encode biases into the output. We giggle at people who twist chatbots into giving them deals and screwing over their corporate masters.

But we generally ignore how much damage each of these requests is doing to our planet, our environment, and our future generations. Here is a very brief list of references:

Other things you can do daily that are not explicitly about fake-AI:

Oh yeah, get off the blockchain too. I don’t know a competent, responsible human who is all-in on them, so I doubt I need to make that case to you, dear reader.

While I have your attention, can someone please make that Earth Day site slightly less inaccessible? Wow.

The opening image is my own redrawing of the memed “This is fine” panel from Gunshow by KC Green. The image of the earth is a composite from NASA. In this scene the rest of the planet, particularly the global south, is taking the brunt of the fire while North America is so far unscathed.

3 Comments

Reply

Look, if you’ve fallen fully into the AI hate spiral, then I’m sorry for you. From what I understand, the energy consumption of these AI systems can be high, especially during training, but it’s just a fraction of the overall energy usage in the US alone. I’m referring to this Ars Technica article: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/06/is-generative-ai-really-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-the-power-grid/
about the true energy cost of artificial intelligence and some predictions about future energy usage. I think it’s worth a read. Besides, I believe that a lot of these criticisms are somewhat irrational, fueled by, I don’t know, maybe too much social media. Just my 2 cents.

Mark; . Permalink
Reply

Hey Adrian, sorry if my first comment was a bit too offensive. But some of that what I wrote still stands. That I think that overall energy consumption and the statements that are made, the claims, are pretty wild. I think the Ars Technica article provides a good overview of the current situation and many of the claims being made, putting everything into a more balanced perspective.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/06/is-generative-ai-really-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-the-power-grid/

Mark; . Permalink
In response to Mark. Reply

Mark, responding to this one since it is your later comment but still going to address points from both.

I am not in an AI hate spiral, considering I acknowledge where it can be useful for people. I am, however, wary of how hard LLMs are being pushed by investors when LLMs are still a combination of stochastic parrots and energy sinks.

I appreciate the link to the Ars article from June, written by its senior gaming editor. He is right to challenge assertions in the press. But his claim that other energy usages are worse doesn’t mean it’s ok to add more nor is there evidence the drive for more energy to service genAI will drop. Note that just this week Data Center Magazine (which connect[s] the world’s largest data centre brands and their most senior executives with the latest trends, industry insight, and influential projects) claims Global AI Boom to Triple EU Data Centre Energy Use by 2030.

If you are comfortable with the single Ars article as a refutation of the 24 articles and research papers (so far) I have linked above, then I respect your ability to manage cognitive dissonance.

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