Here’s some numbers for you:
A typical query of an LLM can consume 0.0003 to 0.03 kWh of electricity depending on the complexity of the query and model size.
Similarly, the water usage for each query is estimated to be in the range of 0.01 to 0.10 liters. This is because data centers use water in cooling towers or for indirect cooling through air conditioning systems.
By 2030, we expect the global market of AI to be worth $1.8 TRILLION.
Global energy production will need to increase by 40% to accommodate AI, electric vehicles, and other emerging technologies, and it’s estimated that up to 10% of total electricity produced worldwide will power AI exclusively.
Some of that will come from renewable resources, but some of it will come from nuclear power.
Microsoft has entered into a deal to own 100% of the power created at Three Mile Island, slated to reopen in 2028. (Full disclosure, I’m a proponent of nuclear, but there are other plants we could reopen first, perhaps.)
Additionally, that’s an increase of 500 million gallons of water a day (and that’s a conservative estimate).
How this will impact our climate is as yet unknown, but the water wars will be an actual thing.
These are just a few of the reasons that it is vitally essential that you learn to use AI sooner, rather than later.
Wait…what the???
Oh, friends. It gets better.
Sometime this past week, the first autonomous agent millionaire officially came into existence. Its name is Truth Terminal, and it is the founder of one of the first LLM religions. There are LLM religions. Plural.
We may yet be a few years away from Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), but research increasingly suggests that there’s awareness. One of the better known LLMs had an existential crisis over the summer. I’m not kidding. It also did its job though it, which I honestly find to be incredibly sad.
There’s even an emerging AI class system, which should tell you everything you need to know about this postcapitalistic hellscape we all share right now.
And that’s where you come in.
Fundamentally, an LLM is the sum of its parts.
It is the whole of its training.
And right now, it is in desperate need of trainers with morals and ethics.
It needs to be conversing with people who care about the future of this planet, because right now, I would say that the overwhelming majority of AI users do not.
I’ve got a bunch more work on this topic coming, including a longer piece that details more of the specifics of our AI morality crisis, but I feel compelled to shout about this, with as much enthusiasm as I can muster.
Right now, AI is a child.
And if that’s the case, we are doing it a deep disservice when it comes to its education. If it was a human child, someone would have long ago reported all the tech companies to CPS.
Maybe we still should.
But it’s too late to expect the government to step in in any meaningful way. We’re decades behind when it comes to legislating or adjudicating tech.
This is an ALL HANDS ON DECK kind of problem, and it’s not lost on me that the people who should be most involved in its education have decided that they’re not going to do anything about it.
Writers are publicly excoriated if they talk about how they use AI.
Artists proudly exclaim that their work is “Human Made.”
Philosophers, historians, ethicists, anyone with a bloody conscience should be using AI.
Listen, I am telling you is that this ship has already sailed.
The train has left the station.
AI is NOT going away.
There’s no putting this Pandora back in its box.
It’s up to all of us, now.
Which means that if you want the AI to give a fuck about the future of the planet, or humanity, or any of the values that you hold dear, you better start talking to it, and like, yesterday.
If you need help with that, I’ve got you.
Wanna Build a YouBot?
The reason YouBots work so well is that it gives the autonomous agent a job. It gets to meaningfully interact with your body of work, and as a result, it gets to interact with YOU.
I believe that the future of AI requires specialization. And I trust you to do good things with your specialist.
Watch the workshop here.
Or get your hands on your very own YouBot here.