Thread

1. IshKebab · 1790702029 · focus · HN ↗

   I wish they'd list the environmental cost. My employer has an unlimited AI budget so I don't care about using Astra if it's just more profit for OpenAI. I care more if it actually uses 5x more energy.

   1. rs_rs_rs_rs_rs · 1790702302 · focus · HN ↗

      I don't understand the point of this, why just now when it comes to llms. Why wasn't anyone enraged with the environmental costs of kids playing video games. I would not be surprised the environmental cost of that is an order of magnitude bigger than what llms have.

      Edit: for context, just Steam alone has ~200million monthly active users.

      1. IshKebab · 1790705483 · focus · HN ↗

         I don't think video games consume nearly as much power. A PS5's power consumption is apparently around 200W. That's not enough to run even one GPU, let alone the armada it presumably takes to run Astra.

         Even then people do care about the power consumption of non-AI things. Look at the energy label on your TV or tumble drier for example.

         1. rs_rs_rs_rs_rs · 1790709110 · focus · HN ↗

            > non-AI things

            But this is not that, the same gpus you play games with are used to run llms. How was energy consumation by gpu not a topic before llms?

            > I don't think video games consume nearly as much power. A PS5's power consumption is apparently around 200W. That's not enough to run even one GPU, let alone the armada it presumably takes to run Astra.

            Just Steam has 200 million monthly active users. Add Steam, PS, Xbox, and whole other devices having gpus and I'm pretty sure you at least 10x the energy consumption of all ai companies.

            1. IshKebab · 1790715767 · focus · HN ↗

               > But this is not that, the same gpus you play games with are used to run llms. How was energy consumation by gpu not a topic before llms?

               I dunno what you're not getting but a GPU to run games is like 200-500W. A GPU cluster to run Astra is probably more like 10kW.

               Also gamers tend not to spin up dozens of other machines to also game for them.

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