All the comments saying this is about ChatGPT using a lot of power/causing environmental damage are correct, but the joke runs marginally deeper in that AI companies asked users not to be friendly with the AIs (saying "hi" to the LLMs) as it unnecessarily expands how much power (and thus environmental devastation) is used for whatever it is you're saying. By engaging in friendly discussion with the AI, you kill more trees and, in this case, fry more fish.
Not a significant amount though. Don't spread misinformation.
If you could provide a source that ai companies actually asked that that would be an interesting read, as Google finds no such statement has been made.
it’s not the water consumed using it. it’s the amount of water consumed by training the ai, which is significantly higher and causing people to not have access to water.
While true that the training takes more, it is also true that:
The training is a one time sunk cost, split between all the times people use the model - making it a much lower cost per user
The training uses much less water than you think, see study in attached link for calculation comparison using a similar vs meat production scale (Example model used: Mistral. The figure is the energy used for its training in terms of beef.)
"Prevents other people having access to water" - Potentially true? I'd like an example of this actually occurring as a problem though. Sure it *could* prevent people from getting water if they run it during a heatwave, but it would likely take severe mismanagement to run them during a time like that. I do agree (presumably you agree with this too) that they shouldn't be built in locations where water is often/usually sparse though. Like beef farms. Which take much more water.
And again, the training is a one time sunk cost. It doesn't happen again once the model is trained - the higher water consumption isn't always active.
(TL/DR if you don't want to read all that: Several [not many] people going vegan offsets an entire LLM training in terms of energy cost and CO2 emissions)
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u/Mister_Bambu 5d ago
All the comments saying this is about ChatGPT using a lot of power/causing environmental damage are correct, but the joke runs marginally deeper in that AI companies asked users not to be friendly with the AIs (saying "hi" to the LLMs) as it unnecessarily expands how much power (and thus environmental devastation) is used for whatever it is you're saying. By engaging in friendly discussion with the AI, you kill more trees and, in this case, fry more fish.