Hacker News Reader

Comment by lambda | Hacker News Reader

All of this sounds like something you could just do yourself after putting a piece down for a day or two and coming back to it with fresh eyes. What benefit is there of cooking the oceans with a bullshit generator?

Like, sure, it's possible to do this with an LLM, but it's also possible to do it without, at roughly similar levels of effort, without contributing to all of the negative externalities of the LLM/genAI ecosystem.

View on HN

Because the complaints about the power and water usage of AI are mostly motivated reasoning. I don't like AI, therefore I'm going to find a reason not to like it. I Listen, if it's Greta Thunberg pointing out that AI datacenters use a lot of resources, yeah, I'm willing to listen. But when the voices saying "but what about all the water/electricity is wasting" is coming from individuals I know personally haven't previously given a shit about the planet or conservation or recycling and have made fun of me for reusing things instead of throwing stuff into the garbage, I'm sorry, but those complaints from those individuals fall on deaf ears. Not saying you are, just a theme I've noticed with people in my life.

"anecdotally, some people in my life said something that was measurably true but that I didn't like. I think they're being phony."

Who is using motivated reasoning here?

So all uses of water, land, and power are the same?

They have no grading in terms of importance and priority, especially in a world contending with climate change, lack of arable land, lack of drinkable water, and so on? AI usage of these resources is on par with every other use?

Being able to get useful feedback immediately rather than 48 hours later is useful if you need text today.

Great, now I can procrastinate longer and still meet deadlines. By accelerating climate change.

Anything you could automate you could do yourself. What’s the benefit?

If you don't want to eat meat on Fridays, I'm certainly not going to tell you that you should. You do you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com