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We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.
(www.technologyreview.com)
this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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Ypu know what I don't hear on lemmy? People complaining that crypto world consumes more energy than AI world and one of those is far more useless in grand scheme of things.
So how comes it is A issue for AI, but everyone seemingly has forgotten about crypto?
Last I heard, securing one transaction on chain is equalivent to powering US household for many days (feel free to fact check). In comparison, generating LLM text for entire hour on your PC is pretty much the same as gaming for two hours (very approx., your gpu is unlikely at 100% load), which means gaming world is far more destructive energy wise. Are you getting triggered yet?
That's because one has all the big tech companies madly rushing to implement it everywhere, while the other even Ubisoft has abandoned and is more or less stuck to their own cult
I have both heard and said that crypto uses a lot of energy on Lemmy.
What stone did you live under? The huge power consumption of crypto was often debated. You just don't hear too much about it because people don't really talk about crypto much anymore. Now it's mostly just people pro crypto who discuss it. And obviously they tend to talk leas about the downsides.
... Oh, so so the terawatts of power wasted is no longer a problem because people don't really speak of it anymore and cryptobros tried to debate it.
If I'm living under a stone, you're straight up stoned.
What do you think this is, 2016 Tumblr?
That's not true if you were to use off-chain transactions (i.e. lightning network)
"That's not true"
"But not true only if you use non-mainstream transaction method that was not part of the original design and is only supported by selected cryptos, meaning not universal"
K
I mean, don't get me wrong, it's nice that things are improving, but it's safe to say that things will improve for AI too (energy-wise), hella lot of people now working on optimization and it looks very promising, even by just splitting large models into many smaller ones by topic
I just wanted to clarify the confusion that was in my head for a moment after going after the truth and fact checking. If I buy a pizza with Bitcoin and Lightning Network (which is the only one in use at most legal places), it's not like I'm using 1600 kWh... The original message is misleading in that regard.. Practical and concrete reality are different. But theoretical, if that pizza wanted a normal transaction it would use such amount of energy and take days (that's why they wouldn't use that)... So... There's that.
Anyway, the dichotomy 'AI or Crypto' is false. I am not taking sides. But you do you, enjoy.
the ones that give up on all the "desirable" aspects of cryptocurrencies? The payment isn't final until it is on chain. You don't need to trust anyone to figure out if you're on the right chain in the first place. Off-chain shit defeats this. What's the point, other than dressing up the horse before beating it some more?