Stop using AI for basic things!

[Anonymous]

AI is only about two years old and the articles about how bad it is for our resources are everywhere. Virginia, especially, is affected in light of how many data centers we have.

1. Change your search engine to Duck, Duck, Go. It's easy to do in any browser.
2. If you insist on using Google, type "-ai" at the end of your search.\
3. Stop using chat and AI for basic things that you are capable of doing already. We all wrote our own shopping lists and composed emails without help before.
4. Tell your friends.

AI can be great, but we should be using it thoughtfully.


https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/19/demand-for-ai-is-driving-data-center-water-consumption-sky-high/ (summarizing an article from paywalled Financial Times)

in Virginia — home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers — water usage jumped by almost two-thirds between 2019 and 2023, from 1.13 billion gallons to 1.85 billion gallons.

Many say the trend, playing out worldwide, is unsustainable. Microsoft, a major data center operator, says 42% of the water it consumed in 2023 came from “areas with water stress.” Google, which has among the largest data center footprints, said this year that 15% of its freshwater withdrawals came from areas with “high water scarcity.”

https://grist.org/technology/surging-demand-data-guzzling-water-ai/

Northern Virginia is the data center capital of the globe, where more than 300 facilities process nearly 70 percent of the world’s digital information, a job that requires ever more electricity. A utility that serves the area, Dominion Energy, announced during a May 2 earnings call that the industry’s demand for electricity had more than doubled in recent years. The week before that call, Google announced a billion-dollar expansion of three Virginia facilities, following a $35 billion investment by Amazon Web Services in the same area last year. State lawmakers and environmental groups have begun worrying about what this industry boom means for the area’s supply of water.

Last summer and fall, Virginia suffered a monthslong drought. The worst of the dry spell was in the same watershed as “data center alley,” part of Loudoun County where thousands of technology companies make use of the greatest concentration of data centers in the world, in an area the size of 100,000 football fields.

[Anonymous]

Good tips. We should be skeptical of “free” AI tools that are being shoved down our throats everywhere you look.

[Anonymous]

Besides ai is often wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anyone with a brain stopped using google long ago.

[Anonymous]

Ohhh I didn't know you could exclude AI from results that way. Nicr.

[Anonymous]

Don’t tell me what to do. You’re not my mother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t tell me what to do. You’re not my mother.

If she's as stupid as her offspring, the planet is doomed. But my guess is she tried to teach your obstinate ass to do better and, well, we see how well that worked out for the ol' girl!

[Anonymous]

Stop using AI for literally anything. What do you need it for? You can't write? Practice. You can't draw? Practice.

And stop calling it "AI" because it's neither artificial nor intelligent. It's PISS: Plagiarized Information Synthesis Service, and it steals from people to perpetuate mediocrity, at a huge expense to the planet and the people on it.

Detox.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone with a brain stopped using google long ago.

A lot of public school run in Google, plenty of people still use it and most people don’t know the concerns about AI usage yet.

[Anonymous]

Just like corporations are responsible for 80% of solution, but sure I'm gonna make sure that tin can gets to the recycling-- it's not the individual requests that are driving up water and energy costs. Stop making individuals feel like they are responsible for the irresponsibility and pure greed of corporations.

[Anonymous]

Who still uses google FFS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who still uses google FFS?

A zillion % THIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who still uses google FFS?

A zillion % THIS.

What do you use?

[Anonymous]

Seriously, I had no idea I was supposed to stop using Google. Why is any other search engine better. The # of searches are the number of searches, the data size doesn't change based on which I platform I search on, does it? Or at least, without the AI built in. And know, not all intelligent people have stopped using Google. That's just a dumb thing to say, honestly.

[Anonymous]

I use google. It links so many apps that we use for home, work, and school. I thought everyone used it. What are the best alternatives and why are they better?