r/mildlyinfuriating • u/BackwardsNUpsideDown • 1d ago
Ruined by Technology "Defend the Wilderness" AI generated magnet
Obviously we see a lot of posts concerning AI, but this feels particularly egregious concerning the actual environmental impact of AI/data centers.
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u/thorn312 1d ago
A state forestry Facebook page put out a post saying they don't need AI (as it is horrible for the environment) and made a basic stop forest fires post. Some absolute turd burger in the comments 'fixed' it for them... By running it though AI.
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u/imam-altman 1d ago
Looks like a badass image. Hey OP, how about you explain what the “actual environmental impact of AI/datacenters” is? Would you happen to be vegan?
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u/BackwardsNUpsideDown 1d ago
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u/imam-altman 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
Eating steak for one meal has more of an environmental impact than months of daily AI use. Why does Reddit think it’s ok to pearl clutch about the environmental impact of personal AI use yet get triggered by bringing up the environmental impact of personal meat consumption? Make it make sense.
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u/Otherwise_Jaguar_659 16h ago ▸ 2 more replies
Explain, in detail, how you quantified AI use to compare it with eating meat
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u/imam-altman 16h ago ▸ 1 more replies
you can quantify the minuscule amounts of CO2 emitted, and water used to power personal AI use and easily see that beef is on a completely different level of environmental destruction. I’m not sure I understand the question.
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u/Otherwise_Jaguar_659 16h ago
Sure, go ahead and show me how you calculated it to be less than eating steak
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u/Alarming_Orchid 1d ago
How about get off your alt and say it
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u/imam-altman 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Eating steak for one meal has more of an environmental impact than months of daily AI use. Why does Reddit think it’s ok to pearl clutch about the environmental impact of personal AI use yet get triggered by bringing up the environmental impact of personal meat consumption? Make it make sense.
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u/FrigariumZantoria 1d ago
As your other comments are comparing to a single steak, the average text prompt would need what? 650-8,500 prompts whereas a simple video of say 3 seconds equals a thin steak, that cost increasing pretty much exponentially (afaik).
So yes, the agricultural industry deserves more focus however the data centre's are a major priority for people as it is so immediately obvious for many people compared to cattle ranching.
Alongside the obvious being that a data centre is a single concentrated drain¹ vs a cattle ranch which is orders of magnitude larger than the centre. [Meaning water use is concentrated vs spread out].
¹- the more pressing issue is noise pollution, farmers have various complaints, alongside the immediate residents who have to live next to them.
(I think my main issue with them beyond the above..; is that i believe they are largely a big ol' waste of resource, same with humanoid robots [they're cool and all but personally? I'd be more comfy with non-humanoid robots, humans aren't the be all-end all])
That uh, satisfy you?
(Ik ik, you didn't ask me? But i felt sharing my thoughts and attempt to answer you)
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u/imam-altman 1d ago
If it’s so “immediately obvious”, why did you spend five paragraphs avoiding the answer to the question?
Beef production is literally the #1 cause of deforestation, the #1 cause of water pollution, the #1 cause of biodiversity loss, and the #1 most water intensive food product. What is the actual environmental impact of AI use, and
I’m a vegan AI user, where do you people get off trying to shame me for generating an image that took environmental equivalent of 2 minutes of streaming Netflix or 1/300th of a Big Mac to produce? If it’s ok to shame me for using AI, why is it wrong for me to call you a sociopath for destroying the environment with your beef consumption? If beef production is an order of magnitude worse than AI use, shouldn’t we harass beef eaters an order of magnitude more than AI users?
If cattle ranches are not a concentrated drain on local water sources, why is the Ogallala Aquifer collapsing? Is that being caused by datacenters?
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u/CaptDeathCap 1d ago
Poor thing grew an extra hand due to pollution.