i should be gripping rat

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I found the arguments about the environment convincing - he really does a great breakdown and comparison of other, individualist carbon emission sources and clearly explains why one person’s heavy Chatgpt usage is nothing compared to, say, using a laptop for an hour. I still hate Chatgpt and the rest for all the OTHER reasons that we all know by now, but on the environmental point, I felt this article was persuasive. Overly long, but persuasive.


  • Idk, maybe I’m a big idiot, but I have issues with the points made in this article. I will concede the point that individual Chatgpt use is not that big of a deal, environmentally speaking. If I can trust the numbers in this article, then it has successfully convinced me that I dont need to worry about the energy cost or emissions or water use of individual prompts.

    The case I take issue with is the author’s point that LLMs are inherently useful. I don’t care if chatgpt is kind of just a better Google. I still hate every other thing about it. Using Chatgpt is clearly developing psychoses in some people, and even for people like this author that can use it responsibly, I think it’s just intellectually lazy. It encourages the user to abandon critical thinking and let the robot do it for you. What’s more, as a search tool, it’s destroying the internet. If no one ever goes to websites to read the info, why would people keep making websites with reliable information? Why should I even read this article? Why don’t I just have chat summarize it for me, and I never give this author any traffic or money? Then of course there is the plagiarism problem…

    So idk. Maybe now I’ll stop harping on the environmental point. But I’m still going to avoid LLMs like the plague, because at their core I think they rob us of some of the finer points of a life well-lived. I’d rather spend my time poring through articles to understand the why and how of a question, rather than have a robot just spit the “what” out at me.

    Edit: well I shared this elsewhere and someone pointed out that this dude is a self-avowed “Effective Altruist”, which boils down to “he’s a stooge for techbros and he probably takes a paycheck under the table to write these articles”. So…i no longer feel that I can trust the numbers in this article. I’m back to having heavy concerns about the environmental impact of AI.





  • I don’t think it’s exactly “rubbing it in.” I think it’s appropriate for NBC to point out this small detail in the headline, as it is a neutral detail which nevertheless colors the incident in a more appropriate light. Just saying “car crash” would lead more people to believe he was t-boned or something (most people only read the headline), when the truth seems to be that he made a very dangerous decision which unfortunately led to his death and the death of his passenger. Hopefully more Ferrari owners get the message, and they remember Vince before they decide to gun it down Angeles Crest Highway.





  • As anti-AI as I am, this is way less sensational than the headline makes it sound. They’re adding an AI mode that’s basically a built-in extension. Sounds easy to disable. I hate this shit, but you have to grant that Mozilla is a small company fighting for survival. They are probably just doing this to stay relevant (maybe they can get more money from google by being the default AI provider as well), and they may just as quickly drop this when the AI bubble finally pops. I am willing to forgive Mozilla for a little more than I forgive Microsoft, who has no real reason to push this AI hype other than trying to get more rich.