I'm wondering, is there a tool or something out there that helps me pick a model, in the vast sea of models out there these days? Every time I need a model for something I see the list on openrouter and I'm completely overwhelmed.
I'd love to be able to explain my use case, my cost preferences and have a tool select a few good models to try.
E.g. I wrote a tool that cleans out my email spam box. It classifies emails that are already flagged as spam, and if it's very obviously spam it removes it permanently (keeps a copy on disk though). And after x emails, it goes through the list of deleted spam mails and suggests email rules. What model would be best suited? I'd love to be able to explain this use case and get this info served to me. The list of models and the information about what they're good at is just too splintered and spread out. I landed on google/gemma-4-31b for now, because it's cheap and good enough and also supports Dutch and French a bit. But I can't realistically try them all.
If you use a model hosted in China while it's night there, the energy obviously doesn't come from solar, as there's not enough storage capacity. Even if you use it during daytime, most of the energy still won't come from solar, because the ideal solar power locations in the sparsely-populated west are far from the ideal data center locations in the densely-populated east and there's not enough transmission capacity between them.
Additionally, using a Chinese provider doesn't mean the model will be hosted in China, e.g. for Qwen Omni here, the supported regions are: China (Beijing), Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Frankfurt), and US (Virginia). <a href="https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-omni#qwen3-8-omni-flash" rel="nofollow">https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-omni#...
power capacity coming from solar means that at peak, no new non-solar power plants are needed. it does not mean that at nadir everything is solar. legacy power plants continue working around the clock, it either goes to waste or it goes to things that run at night.
that aside, solar also includes storage of energy that comes from solar. you should read up on energy networks.
if you mine 4 tons of coal, anywhere on earth, 1 ton of it will be going to china to be burned to make electricity. China's energy production is extraordinarily dirty, the cleanest part of it is the PR. More than half of the energy they produce is from burning coal. They certainly want to integrate more renewables but they have the same problems with that everyone else does - storage and transmission are expensive and essential for a renewable heavy grid.
I doubted this but it does look like there's an actual government initiative that mandates 80% clean energy for all new data-center builds: <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91578780/how-china-is-powering-new-data-centers-with-clean-energy" rel="nofollow">https://www.fastcompany.com/91578780/how-china-is-powering-n...
that said, China is also rapidly scaling up coal-fired plants: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-coal-power-plant-carbon-climate-change-ba86e7584e3afe1826eed5cffa25354a" rel="nofollow">https://apnews.com/article/china-coal-power-plant-carbon-cli...
those presumably support all of the surrounding infrastructure + people + manufacturing so it's not as if it's truly solar-powered. but it's still handily better than the state-by-state abandonment of clean energy goals here in the US - I lay this out a bit here: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700743">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700743
Note that the 80% are qualified with "inside eight large data center hubs created in China’s “East West Computing Strategy”." Most new data centers are built elsewhere and will use whatever source of energy is most convenient.
>80% are qualified with "inside eight large data center hubs created in China’s “East West Computing Strategy”." Most new data centers are built elsewhere
this is a pedantic misinterpretation of the scope of East Data, West Computing. the hubs are all in tier one cities with the power generation capacity to handle them. each hub is comprised of dozens of data-centers and are the place to build because of large economic incentives, infra guarantees, and university-trained talent living in close proximity
see <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809924005058" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S209580992...
>This initiative is expected to accommodate up to 95% of China’s digital data needs through this reorganization
>Within a year of implementation, more than 112 new data centers have either been authorized, under construction, or completed across the planned computing hubs
this project itself is the thing that has all the other nation states in the world clutching pearls about not supporting their native AI corporations enough. it's something you and everyone else should really familiarize yourself with because it is one of the major items influencing current realpolitik and economic decisions (and is likely going to be the thing that'll lead us to a thrice-in-a-lifetime sized recession but that's a convo for a different day)
I appreciate the input, maybe tighten up your commentary.
Check the source we're discussing: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source?country=~CHN" rel="nofollow">https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source?coun...
As you can see it is percentage of coal as part of total energy mix that has been dropping for two decades.
As already stated above. Perhaps you missed that?
You're correct that absolute tonnage of coal use is still climbing, - but at an ever decreasing rate and was predicted to peak .. of course, thanks to some shenanigans by the Hegseth's of the world that may be deferred for a while, thanks USofA!
Of course on the plus side (for the atmosphere) there's been a drop in global fossil fuel consumption, so swings, arrows.
China, of course, is still well short of total CO2 tonnage lofted over the past century in comparison with the US - even allowing for a vastly greater population.
I understand you're talking about % of energy generation and its fine to highlight it but people here are talking as if % of energy generation means less coal emissions when its actually the complete opposite. There is almost no reason to care about % of energy generation by coal when they add the level of coal production that they've added over the past 15 years. CO2 output producted after 2010 is completely different to CO2 produced pre 1950. The difference is once the world started addressing climate change china went the complete opposite direction and because they can highlight a few stats people endless sweep for them as if they're actually doing something good. They have objectively destroyed the world.
mavamaarten · · focus · HN ↗
I'd love to be able to explain my use case, my cost preferences and have a tool select a few good models to try.
E.g. I wrote a tool that cleans out my email spam box. It classifies emails that are already flagged as spam, and if it's very obviously spam it removes it permanently (keeps a copy on disk though). And after x emails, it goes through the list of deleted spam mails and suggests email rules. What model would be best suited? I'd love to be able to explain this use case and get this info served to me. The list of models and the information about what they're good at is just too splintered and spread out. I landed on google/gemma-4-31b for now, because it's cheap and good enough and also supports Dutch and French a bit. But I can't realistically try them all.
rudicjd2747 · · focus · HN ↗
yorwba · · focus · HN ↗
Additionally, using a Chinese provider doesn't mean the model will be hosted in China, e.g. for Qwen Omni here, the supported regions are: China (Beijing), Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Frankfurt), and US (Virginia). <a href="https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-omni#qwen3-8-omni-flash" rel="nofollow">https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-omni#...
boltzmann-brain · · focus · HN ↗
that aside, solar also includes storage of energy that comes from solar. you should read up on energy networks.
idiotsecant · · focus · HN ↗
paimapi · · focus · HN ↗
that said, China is also rapidly scaling up coal-fired plants: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-coal-power-plant-carbon-climate-change-ba86e7584e3afe1826eed5cffa25354a" rel="nofollow">https://apnews.com/article/china-coal-power-plant-carbon-cli...
those presumably support all of the surrounding infrastructure + people + manufacturing so it's not as if it's truly solar-powered. but it's still handily better than the state-by-state abandonment of clean energy goals here in the US - I lay this out a bit here: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700743">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700743
yorwba · · focus · HN ↗
paimapi · · focus · HN ↗
this is a pedantic misinterpretation of the scope of East Data, West Computing. the hubs are all in tier one cities with the power generation capacity to handle them. each hub is comprised of dozens of data-centers and are the place to build because of large economic incentives, infra guarantees, and university-trained talent living in close proximity
see <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809924005058" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S209580992...
>This initiative is expected to accommodate up to 95% of China’s digital data needs through this reorganization
>Within a year of implementation, more than 112 new data centers have either been authorized, under construction, or completed across the planned computing hubs
this project itself is the thing that has all the other nation states in the world clutching pearls about not supporting their native AI corporations enough. it's something you and everyone else should really familiarize yourself with because it is one of the major items influencing current realpolitik and economic decisions (and is likely going to be the thing that'll lead us to a thrice-in-a-lifetime sized recession but that's a convo for a different day)
ezst · · focus · HN ↗
If by that you misspelled coal, sure
<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source?country=~CHN" rel="nofollow">https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source?coun...
defrost · · focus · HN ↗
ezst · · focus · HN ↗
defrost · · focus · HN ↗
Kind of like what absolutely isn't happening with the current US administration.
Fizz43 · · focus · HN ↗
defrost · · focus · HN ↗
Check the source we're discussing: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source?country=~CHN" rel="nofollow">https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-elec-by-source?coun...
As you can see it is percentage of coal as part of total energy mix that has been dropping for two decades.
As already stated above. Perhaps you missed that?
You're correct that absolute tonnage of coal use is still climbing, - but at an ever decreasing rate and was predicted to peak .. of course, thanks to some shenanigans by the Hegseth's of the world that may be deferred for a while, thanks USofA!
Of course on the plus side (for the atmosphere) there's been a drop in global fossil fuel consumption, so swings, arrows.
China, of course, is still well short of total CO2 tonnage lofted over the past century in comparison with the US - even allowing for a vastly greater population.
Fizz43 · · focus · HN ↗