AI Is Eating the World
AI Is Eating the World
The insatiable appetite of Large Language Models; a bigger, better blogroll; the return of poetry in the blog.
The Week
Image of the Week
This is a favorite spot upstream from our beach. I support the dam removal, but by the end of this summer this spot may look different. I wanted to memorialize how it looked one fall day last year.
AI Is Eating the World
You may recognize the headline as a play on Mac Andreessen’s assertion that “software is eating the world.” He was predicting that software companies would take over a big chunk of the world economy. What I’m suggesting is not so much about the economy, which I don’t understand (I’m good with numbers unless they have currency symbols attached to them; then I don’t know what’s going on), but about resources.
Resources like energy and water. Generative AI is using a lot, and demanding a lot more. I’d say that the growing appetite of Generative AI may prove to be unsustainable, but there’s a scary ambiguity in that word “unsustainable.” Will AI models have their supply of resources curtailed, or will we? Who gets fed first? What, or who, isn’t sustained?
Gen AI’s demand for energy, data, storage, and compute power is growing at a rate that can only be described as out of control. Meta used ten times the data and a hundred times the compute power to train its Llama 3 models compared to Llama 2, according to Big Technology. It swallowed up so much data, “it considered buying the publishing house Simon & Schuster to find more.” Eating the world.
AI “already uses as much energy as a small country. It’s only the beginning.
The energy needed to support data storage is expected to double by 2026,” according to this article in Vox. The massive amount of energy AI requires for computation and data storage is matched by the “millions of gallons of water to cool the equipment at data centers,” and regulators are starting to talk about accountability.
Again, is this pace sustainable? Is anyone even pretending that it is? For that matter, do we have figures on how much energy AI is using? Per The Verge:
“Estimates do exist, but experts say those figures are partial and contingent, offering only a glimpse of AI’s total energy usage. This is because machine learning models are incredibly variable, able to be configured in ways that dramatically alter their power consumption. Moreover, the organizations best placed to produce a bill — companies like Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI — simply aren’t sharing the relevant information.” Eating disorders are often hidden.
Blogroll
I’ve expanded my list this week, adding several AI blogs that I read regularly, as well as brief descriptions of the blogs.
The AI Edge
A daily newsletter to help you keep up with the latest news and trends.
Big Technology
A newsletter about big tech and society by independent journalist Alex Kantrowitz.
Creators’ AI
AI insights, tools, guides for creators and entrepreneurs.
AI Supremacy
News at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, technology, and business. Includes Op-Eds, research summaries, guest contributions, and info on AI startups, by Michael Spencer.
Artificial Intelligence Made Simple
AI made simple by Devansh.
AI: A Guide for Thinking Humans
A blog about interesting developments in artificial intelligence by Melanie Mitchell, Professor, Santa Fe Institute.
marcwatkins
How generative AI is impacting education, by Marc Watkins, Academic Innovation Fellow, Director of the Mississippi AI Institute, Lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi.
The AI Optimist
Exploring the possibilities of AI, against the drawbacks. By Declan Dunn.
Machine Society
Mike Elgan’s technology newsletter, formerly known as “Mike’s List.”
Ahead of AI
Machine Learning & AI research by Sebastian Raschka.
Mark Watson’s AI Books and Blog
Read his books for free online.
Doctors Without Borders
Every day, Doctors Without Borders teams deliver emergency medical aid to people in crisis, with humanitarian projects in more than 70 countries.
World Central Kitchen
WCK is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
Verse
If you’ve been following this blog for over a year, you may recognize some of these. Sorry, I just feel a need to put some verse in each post. I’ll try to write a new one from time to time. I’m starting with limericks, and I have enough of those to last until the end of July. After that I’ll break out the heavy stuff.
Three Limericks
Dad, an Ethereum miner
And mom, a Savile Row designer
Had kids named Bespoke and
Non-fungible Token
And opened a twee faux-pho diner.
There once was a clerical crimnal
Whose moral dimension was minmal,
Indulging his taste
For perversity based
On a verse that he read in the hymnal.
A passionate fan from Montana
Was touched to his core by Santana
And claimed Jimi Hendrix
Removed his appendix
By playing the Star Spangled Banner.
Before You Go…
ICYMI: Thanks for reading. You can read all the back issues of Swaine’s World at my blog home.
My Day Job: I edit books for The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Here are their current best-selling books. An example of the books that I edit is Programming WebRTC, which will be coming out soon. In it, Karl Stolley teaches you how to build real-time streaming apps for the Web. Build your own video chat app. Multiplayer gaming. Stuff like that.
Coming Attractions: In the coming weeks, more Swaine’s Flames flashbacks, Dirt Road Diaries, bulletins from the AI revolution, tech history, books, and random verse.