Yesterday I talked about nostalgia and touched on the unchecked growth that it idealises in our quest to have everything last forever. What I didn't cover was the way that our continued growth online harms our environment.
Currently our data center carbon footprint matches that of the airline industry1. All that AI that's being pushed is literally killing us by contributing to global warming. The technoutopian AI overload Sam Altman knows that we don't currently understand the energy usage of AI and his solution to the problem is....a breakthrough in energy generation.
This is what Grant Ennis calls a magic frame2.
Corporate desire preys on our collective desire to abdicate responsibility by deflecting blame and pinning our hopes on fanciful notions. Dark PR Pg 56
So you don't have to feel bad about that dead koala as you use ChatGPT, because Sam Altman is confident there is going to be some energy breakthrough that will solve the problem. He's not pouring money into researching it. He has no idea where it's coming from, but trust him he's smart it's going to come and save us all.
This koala isn't dead
Since the energy breakthrough is coming, we should just let Mr Altman continue to suck up energy on the cheap so he can make money and his investors can make money.
In fact, you should feel bad about the carbon impact of AI and you should be talking to anyone with political authority around to help ensure that some data center doesn't come to your area and get any tax breaks or grants for jobs because the impact of the data center far outweighs any benefits it brings to your area.