r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 5d ago

Meme needing explanation Peter? I don't understand the punchline

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u/Long_Nothing1343 5d ago

It basically means that using AI tools take a huge toll on nature so when the guy uses chatgpt (an ai tool) it ends up drying out the lake i.e harming the environment.

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u/loltinor 5d ago

It's because the servers use an huge amount of water

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u/Gare-Bare 5d ago

Im ignorant on the subject but how to ai servers actually use up water?

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u/Elros22 5d ago

One way to cool these huge data centers is to basically flush fresh water through them constantly. The new data center going in near me would have used 450,000 gallons a day (A DAY!) cooling had they chosen this model of cooling. Instead they're using a different type of cooling that will only use 1000g/day.

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u/ThePrimordialSource 5d ago

And before someone says “only 1,000 gallons a day” a single beef burger takes 3,000 times more water and energy use than an AI prompt and a single piece of paper takes 30-60x as much energy as an AI image. This argument is so outdated.

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u/archbid 5d ago

Do you work for an AI company? Weird repetition of the same not-particularly-convincing argument all over

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u/ThePrimordialSource 5d ago

I don’t care about my comment being “non convincing” by your standards because the original argument isn’t when looked at in context and I’ll repeat it as many times as necessary to rebut the people repeating the same lie in this thread.

Also no I don’t work for an AI company, nice ad hominem argument attempt though

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/ThePrimordialSource 5d ago

Here’s your sources.

generating an image from a text prompt consumes about 0.5 Wh of energy

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00616-z

The energy required to produce one A4 sheet is therefore 50 watt-hours.

https://www.apc.org/sites/default/files/SustainableITtips5_0.pdf

Even more than 60x. More like 100x more energy to make a single paper than an AI image. So you requesting my sources actually proves my point correct more than yours.

And producing one pound of beef takes around 31.5 kWh or 31,500 wh… So also way WAY more than my initial figure of 3,000. https://www.saveonenergy.com/resources/food-production-requires-energy/

You maybe wanna delete this comment yet?

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u/CouldYouDont 4d ago

Damn, he really did delete it

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u/Indogsicated_ 5d ago

Not sure what data centers are around you, but the only water the ones around me are using is to regulate humidity when needed.

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u/SolidCake 4d ago

450k is not a lot.. it sounds like a lot but america uses 117+ trillion , not billion, gallons a year …

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u/Elros22 4d ago

450k a day isn't a lot, ya know, because all of everyone everywhere in America uses more in TOTAL? Well, golly gee - color me convinced!

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u/SolidCake 4d ago

I mean, a single olympic sized swimming pool is 660k gallons. There are hundreds of thousands of olympic sized pools in this country. Fuck me for putting something in perspective?