AI and Sustainability

As I have mentioned many times prior, I do not use generative AI for anything in my personal life. I don't use it to help write posts or code for this site or any of my little side projects. I have many reasons for staying away from AI and LLMs. Some of them I might be able to get over for some tasks, but the one that I don't know if I'll ever be able to get over is its effect on the environment.

I care about the environment, and I see some of the effects caused by the rush by companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to build the next greatest model. Microsoft is paying to reopen Three Mile Island in my home state of Pennsylvania. I have no issue with Nuclear and live even closer to the plant in Limerick, but if they need that much power to power their data centers, it's doubtful they're only using nuclear and other renewable energy sources. How many data centers are opening with power from natural gas and other fossil fuels. Hell Musk and xAI started operating illegal methane powered turbines for one of their data centers in Memphis, Tennessee.

The planet is warming. Every year the planet is getting hotter, and it's looking less and less likely we'll get our carbon emissions under control anytime in the near future. The damage caused by the ensuing wildfires and other weather disasters is only going to get worse.

I'm not one of those people who thinks this problem will be solved if enough of us "regular folk" get together and make greener choices from recycling, setting your thermostat slightly higher, etc. I believe the big players, think fossil fuel companies, the airline industry, those who are constantly flying around on private jets need to most certainly pull their weight for real change to happen. I'm also not so cynical to think that my individual choices mean nothing either. They might not necessarily do anything to tilt the scales, but that doesn't mean they're worthless as a choice. My choice to make sure I recycle, buy/drive a fuel efficient car, try to use less electricity, and other such decisions might not make a dent in the grand scheme of things, but I still feel they're the right decision. My decision to refrain from using the big LLMs might not stop the momentum and the data center buildup, but they allow me to sleep at night believing I'm making the right call.

I'll finish off by sharing this post from Hidde de Vries:

Often, using AI, and especially generative AI, is like going to your local corner shop using a helicopter. What if you could solve the same problem with a couple of lines of Python, and Excel-sheet, people, or manually summarising?

I wanted to mention this specifically, because nobody wants to be the downer in the group and suggest not doing the thing that everyone is hyped about. But to be sustainable, we need to pick out just the cases where AI is absolutely necessary, and go without it for anything else.

It's okay to not like or use AI. You shouldn't feel ashamed to not use it or feel pressured to use it.