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OpenAI boss Sam Altman wants $7tn. For all our sakes, pray he doesn’t get it
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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It doesn't really go into why not.
If governments are going to be pouring money into something, I'd prefer it to be in the tech industry.
Imagine a cold-war / Oppenheimer situation where all the governments are scared that America / Russia / UAE will reach AI supremacy before {{we}} do? Instead of dumping all the moneyz into Lockheed Martin or Raytheon for better pew pew machines - we dump it into better semiconductor machinery, hardware advancements, and other stuff we need for this AI craze.
In the end we might not have a useful AI, but at least we've made progression in other things that are useful
Why not? Here's one reason - because the planet is burning from climate change and we need a shit ton more resources for solving it. It's unlikely that AI would help much with that. Of course the UAE isn't too interested in the world moving away from fossil fuels.
Ok, sure. So in a tech race, if energy is a bottleneck - and we'd be pouring $7tn into tech here - don't you think some of the improvements would be to Power usage effectiveness (PUE) - or a better Compute per Power Ratio?
Every time we make tech use 1/2 as much power per unit of work , something comes along to need 3 times as much work. AI, Blockchain, etc.
Not producing any apparent value (above less wasteful alternatives) at that. Like ballast.
The phenomenon you describe is called Jevons paradox. Absent a law to safeguard the increased efficiency, the waste will follow quickly.