You have to separate the technology, from who is controlling it, what resources it is using up and how companies envision utilizing it. People aren't afraid of the technology, they're afraid of Silicon Valley and corporate America.
I can get on board with most of that, but part of the issue here is the battle over "what resources it is using up" is focusing on the wrong resource.
Assume unabated growth of AI data centers in the USA: in general, you'll stop being able to afford the electricity to run your AC and your freezer before feeling pain from the extra stress on water supplies.
The water issues in the USA have many causes and do exist, but blaming DCs for them or expecting their absence/removal to fix anything is like blaming climate change on residential driveways and trying to reverse it by planting a few lawns in their place.
It isn't about the tools or using them, it's about the scale. The scale of impact is immense and we're not ready to handle it in a mutitude of areas because of all the areas technology touches. Millions of jobs erased with no clear replacement? Value of creative work diminshed leading to more opportunities erased? Scale of 'bad' actors abusing the tools and impacting a whole bunch of spheres from information dispersal to creative industries etc. Not even getting into environmental and land-use impacts to spaces with data centers and towns etc (again, it's the scale that gets ya). And for what? Removing a huge chunk of human activity & expression, for what?
I recently saw someone making the following comparison:
- The transition from paper maps to Waze.
- The transition from unassisted to AI-assisted.
At first, this comparison made me incredibly uncomfortable, but the more I think about it, the more I believe it to be accurate.
I mean, who made the comparison has no idea. He was comparing devs to obsolete cab drivers.
But the analogy holds. And replacing "AI" with "Waze" seems to be a good litmus reality check.
- "Waze Specialist"
- "My company helps people use Waze to increase productivity"
- "I was a pioneer Waze user"
- "I've spent most of my life dreaming of something like Waze"
See how it sounds? It's perfect. We expect this technology to be as ubiquitous as GPS-assisted navigation. Maybe we should start treating it as such: a commodity.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 32.6 ms ] threadAssume unabated growth of AI data centers in the USA: in general, you'll stop being able to afford the electricity to run your AC and your freezer before feeling pain from the extra stress on water supplies.
The water issues in the USA have many causes and do exist, but blaming DCs for them or expecting their absence/removal to fix anything is like blaming climate change on residential driveways and trying to reverse it by planting a few lawns in their place.
- The transition from paper maps to Waze.
- The transition from unassisted to AI-assisted.
At first, this comparison made me incredibly uncomfortable, but the more I think about it, the more I believe it to be accurate.
I mean, who made the comparison has no idea. He was comparing devs to obsolete cab drivers.
But the analogy holds. And replacing "AI" with "Waze" seems to be a good litmus reality check.
- "Waze Specialist"
- "My company helps people use Waze to increase productivity"
- "I was a pioneer Waze user"
- "I've spent most of my life dreaming of something like Waze"
See how it sounds? It's perfect. We expect this technology to be as ubiquitous as GPS-assisted navigation. Maybe we should start treating it as such: a commodity.