Microsoft’s AI Push Imperils Climate Goal as Carbon Emissions Jump 30%
Microsoft’s AI Push Imperils Climate Goal as Carbon Emissions Jump 30%
The company’s goal to be carbon negative by 2030 is harder to reach, but President Brad Smith says the good AI can do for the world will outweigh its environmental impact.
Archived copy of the article: archive.today
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WHO is asking for AI chatbots/assistants to be in everything they use? WHO?
This feels like 3D TV all over again - where the industry tried relentlessly to convince us all we wanted it for a few years, to a collective "meh."
Def not me
A lot of people are asking for AI. Mostly I run in programmer circles and the amount of people there going crazy for AI to enter everything so it can do everything for them is insane. This leeches across to tech savvy people who don't understand the mechanics of it, but they see the programmers going bananas and so they want in on it too.
I am one of the "tech savvy people" and I appreciate the future that machine learning and generative AI can help us usher in, regardless of whether my understanding at the detail level is imperfect. I don't want it forecefully integrated into anything I use really, and I certainly don't want it forcefully integrated into everything, especially (glances at headline) to the detriment of other aspects of human life and happiness. I want it available to me as a discrete tool when needed.
While I respect the reality that others may have different desires than I do, I remain skeptical that a large number of consumers literally want it to be on every damn thing like angry birds, to the point where its usage needs to be heavily factored into the environmental impact of corporations.
If that's somehow a stepping stone period of development that we must pass through to get to the good stuff, then I hope they (in the field generally, not specifically MS) are turning all that horsepower to coming up with innovative climate-positive measures that we are capable of implementing as a near-term goal.
Really get the impression that the wrong type of programmer(scorched earth growth CEO) is in charge of these companies and projects the desire for AI universally. Meanwhile all most people want is an actual answer to a question on the first page of search results. Something made impossible by AI fueled SEO Kessler syndrome.
It feels like really bad branding in an old advertising campaign aimed at children. If AI had any kind of mascot it would already be on fast food collectible cups and cereal boxes.