Should I just start utilizing AI, finally?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Dad worked for the Department Of Defense for 37 years. He was in IT. Ever since I can remember, we had computers in the house. I am definitely not a Luddite. It is NOT a matter of ‘sticking to what I know’.

My handwriting has always been terrible. It actually gets less legible if I write in cursive. When I was able to type book reports and essays for school, we were all much happier. I had a need. When technology filled that need, I jumped on it.

I get lost very easily. There are plenty of things on my iPhone I don’t want and don’t use. I use the Maps app all the time. It has made things so very much easier. I had a need. When technology filled that need, I jumped on it.

At present, AI does not do anything I need or anything I want. There is no reason for me to use it.

True enough.

I don’t use Netflix or any other streaming service. Most of the things I want to see are odd, cult movies and shows. They never made it to any streaming service. When any show or movie is no longer popular enough, it is removed from the streaming service. Video tapes and DVD’s last decades. Being skilled at hunting at Goodwill’s and flea markets, I often find unopened box sets of series I badly want for just a few dollars. What do streaming services offer me specifically that I cannot buy on physical media for less than the cost of a month’s susbscription?

Being a lifelong fan of table top role playing games, I tried a few online games. You can’t do any of the things that I enjoy about role playing in them. I quickly lost interest.

I occasionally use Google’s search engine. My search skills are weak. If I need to find something important, and it doesn’t come up right away, I ask my beloved for help. She works in SEO.

When Windows started requiring a subscription to use Word and the rest, I started using Google Docs.

I don’t have a Gmail account.

Well, that makes sense. But, what other examples do you have?

22

I suppose, but certainly it’s worse than when search engines just found relevant web pages

23

This seems like a potentially flawed argument. Flying on personal jet plane has an environmental impact and riding a bicycle has an environmental impact, so if you’re going to travel at all, you can’t criticise anything?

25

This is my perspective. If it’s something I need and will use I take the time to learn it.

26

If you’re phrasing it as “Should I just start using it, finally” and feeling like you don’t really want to but are being peer pressured by Big AI then, no, using it would be silly.

The reason to use it would be because you think it might be helpful or entertaining. People talk about errors, and its certainly not error-proof, but the obvious solution there seems to be to not ask it if you can safely mix two prescription medicines and instead stick to using it for less accuracy-critical tasks. But, again, that’s only if you want to and feel it would be beneficial to you in some way and not because Microsoft or Google or Meta or whoever else wore you down.

27

I would. It has improved my problem solving abilities both at work and at home.

GPT and Gemini both have their benefits. I like how GPT saves your info so you can discuss medical problems with it, while Gemini doesn’t store your info so you can’t update it with new medical info that it incorporates into a holistic picture of your health issues. If you’re worried about privacy its probably better to use Gemini.

I know there are privacy concerns, but complex health issues are important and I’m fine with sharing that info.

Gemini generally gives better and more in depth answers though than GPT.

28

You’re still using it, even if your gf is entering the search on your behalf.

I assume that participating in online therapy sessions has the same environmental impacts, if that’s something you do.

But I think if you don’t feel a need for AI now, then don’t use it.

29

Other than the medications I take for my neuro-hilariousness, I don’t really have any medical issues. If I did, I would want to discuss them with a human being with verifiable credentials.

Oh wait- I have sleep apnea. I have a Bipap I use every night. Dad had sleep apenea. Mom had it until she lost about 170 pounds after Dad died. I had all the symptoms. I scheduled a sleep study already sure that I had sleep apenea. I just wanted to get a properly calibrated machine so I could finally wake up feeling rested.

I have psoriasis. It is relatively minor and not worth treating.

If anything new pops up, I want to go to an actual doctor. Even is an AI makes a correct diagnosis, it cannot prescribe medication, or refer me to a specialist, or prescribe physical therapy.

30

Does it? Ir’s me and a therapist. Certainly, it uses some resources. But, I would think having a virtual meeting for an hour each week would have quite little environmental impact.

31

I meant as far as server farms. Probably not much, but not none.

32

Every individual person has “quite little environmental impact”. It is all of those small impacts added together times hundreds of millions that make big impacts. Let’s say you have an AI server farm that uses 100,000 gallons of water per day. But it seeves 10 million user requests per day. That means each user request uses up only around 2.5 tablespoons of water. Not much of an environmental impact per request, right? The same goes for one hour virtual meetings. One of those (with a desktop computer on each end) uses up a kilowatt hour of electricity. Not much. But there are many millions of people around the world having virtual meetings.

But even when you add up all the environmental impact from all of AI server farms and virtual meetings on Earth, that’s only a small fraction of the electricity used by all of the light bulbs, televisions, electric ovens and heaters, and all other sources of electric (and water) use.

So I’ll say again, the people complaining about “environmental impact” of AI when both water and electricity usage are a barely noticeable rounding error compared to all other human uses are really just taking something that they already dislike and creating justifications for that. Want to save orders of magnitude more water than AI server farms use? Get everybody to start taking sponge baths instead of showers.

33

Eh, the environmental cost is a valid factor or concern in my opinion. Sure, you’re putting load on a server farm by watching Youtube or checking your email or doing a web search but you were also doing those things before the AI boom. Deciding that AI doesn’t provide enough value to you to justify the additional cost while thinking that the cost is justified in other places is a legitimate conclusion.

I personally don’t sweat the environmental cost but then 85% of my AI use is local and running the stuff on my home PC doesn’t use any more juice than playing a modern flashy video game. If I wanted to shake my fist at environmental cost for no benefit, the obvious culprit is cryptocurrencies where a nation’s worth of electricity is used solely to fleece rubes out of their money and to assist in evading the law.

34

I see that we have different concepts of what “AI” means. I don’t want crap like Gemini on my phone. I do, however play around quite a lot with ChatGPT. I wouldn’t say that I use it for anything “useful” and certainly not anything important, but GPT 4o has become truly impressive lately – see some of the recent threads about it, like “So what does ChatGPT think of you?”. Its ability to summarize large volumes of material, solve difficult problems, and source obscure information is incredible. I sometimes use it to discuss interesting questions, much the way you might with a smart and knowledgeable friend, and it’s given me some good insights on some interesting questions in cosmology.

35

Its entirely your decision. For me, AI has helped me interpret clinical notes written by a physician by explaining what the findings meant, and given me advice about tests to ask for to rule out other possible causes of conditions I have and given me advice for what kind of specialist could help me get those tests. It has also been extremely helpful in helping me understand a relative’s mental illness.

A big use of AI is to help the patient become informed so they can have more informed discussions with their providers about their care.

36

Thanks for clearing that up. I disagree completely. Therapy is, for me at least, a medical necessity. Comparing it to AI server farms is a lot like comparing the amount of money I spend on my medications each month to the amount to the amount of money I allow myself to waste on junk food, used books, and collectables each month. The cost of medications is much higher. It is also necessary for me to function and VERY necessary if I am going to continue to hold a job.

What does AI do to justify the use of resources?

As I said, I am not defending or excusing Netflix servers or online gaming servers. I don’t use those either.

Therapy is medically necessary. I don’t drive or own a car. Telehealth is cheaper and profoundly easier for me.

What does AI do to justify the use of resources? I have other objections- it is ‘trained’ using the work or writers who are not compensated for the use of their work. The answers it provides are often wrong.

I also have some strong feelings on Philly spends my tax dollars. I approve of some of them. Quite a lot seem like a waste of funds. It is the same principle. Yeah, other things use resources. Some of those things I disapprove of as well. If I was complaining about the environmental impact of AI and only AI, you would have a valid point. I’m not. This thread is about AI. Environmental impact is just one of the problems I have with AI. I have problems with the environmental impact of other things. I have other problems wth AI not related to the environment.

37

I hear you, Doc. Because AI can quite unrepentantly make shit up, and hallucinate its sources, I wouldn’t trust it for anything important. As a novelty, like a way to embellish photos, I don’t have a problem with it at this point. But I do tire of reels with crying babies whose mom was killed by zombies after falling from a helicopter and then rescued by a small cat or dog or Lord Jesus and a plastic bottle of water.

One of the most uncanny valley and egregious uses of AI I have seen so far was a video for the Beatles’ “Now and Then” that used images like album covers that sort of reminded you of the actual albums in a dream-like way, but EVERY IMAGE WAS WRONG. To me, this represented frightening possibilities for AI. Now and Then….? K

38

It provides hundreds of millions of people with someting that they want to use. It doesn’t have to “justify” whether DocCathode thinks it is “worthy” of existing, any more than Nintendo is knocking on your door asking for your leave to make all of those Playstations that take resources to make and operate.

39

For what it’s worth, it’s not as if I’m looking to ban AI. I personally don’t like it and don’t see a need, personally.You make it seem like I cast judgement on those who use it, and I don’t believe I’ve indicated that.

40

Again, you said that

I responded to that.

I evaluate plenty of other things for their environmental impact and find them not worth it.

Environmental impact is not my only objection to AI.

Rather than responding to my points, you just say

I am not one of those people. I routinely rant about all the money the city of Philadelphia spends on professional sports. Yes, most Philadelphians support this use of government funds. I do not.

For me to spend time, or money on anything I have to decide it is worth it. Pretty much everything has an environmental impact. Again, I evaluate the environmental impact of plenty of things other than AI.

Finally,

Say what now? When did Nintendo start making Playstations? I thought Sony made Playstations and Nintendo made Switches.

41

Maybe not you. But there are many people who are very, very angry that AI exists at all and very, very angry that there are people who don’t share their righteous indignation over it, and are very vocal in their views. (And very commonly bring up how it is "destroying the environment). For instance, in this year’s big Hugo controversy, volunteer conrunners used ChatGPT as part of their vetting process in screening panel participants for having ever said something that would make them unacceptable to ever be present. There was a massive howling over that and they were forced to grovel in shame and resign:

Not, note, using ChatGPT to write stories, illustrate stories, choose winners, write Hugo ceremony speeches or anything at all, just using it as one factor in seeing if any potentially embarrassing material is associated with names, and people got very angry about that.