{"id":11007,"date":"2023-08-01T11:38:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T09:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/01\/turns-out-theres-another-problem-with-ai-its-environmental-toll\/"},"modified":"2023-08-01T11:38:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T09:38:23","slug":"turns-out-theres-another-problem-with-ai-its-environmental-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/01\/turns-out-theres-another-problem-with-ai-its-environmental-toll\/","title":{"rendered":"Turns out there\u2019s another problem with AI \u2013 its environmental toll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AI uses huge amounts of electricity and water to work, and the problem is only going to get worse \u2013 what can be done?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/ablink.editorial.theguardian.com\/ss\/c\/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00vqkHXqakTSxrykj9mrdACFo11SPMvm9ONAti2JcHBqUgcduObToxycReEYHcTAh6nov_u_7l464yKkl5CZpPeg-CqG3ueb-8UiDZ4dOkhK_xu6BZysaGtGOA-w2_0KTqLsMBLqZrcGelEg-7T5C6DRfMSsX1Wcyrv2RlHjbzIGx0ePxMD7meIXmznkqCFxtrflV_YvxDV9cqXgzdq7c2-9qYTW0MyIMCG7p9sc7wIKCg\/3ha\/N7031ZxvS8Cv2AmB8PHP-g\/h27\/towm4HqYM1UtQe3kzAkaoAWT_zh9HyZuTvPyJCk6JeE\">Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Technology never exists in a vacuum, and the rise of cryptocurrency in the last two or three years shows that. While plenty of people were making extraordinary amounts of money from investing in bitcoin and its competitors, there was consternation about the impact those get-rich-quick speculators had on the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Mining cryptocurrency was environmentally taxing. The core principle behind it was that you had to expend effort to get rich. To mint a bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, you had to first \u201cmine\u201d it. Your computer would be tasked with completing complicated equations that, if successfully done, could create a new entry on to the blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>Rupert Murdoch\u2019s <strong>News Corp is using AI<\/strong> to publish <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2023\/aug\/01\/news-corp-ai-chat-gpt-stories\">3,000 local news stories a week<\/a> in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just journalists at risk: <strong>AI is replacing comedians<\/strong> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2023\/jul\/30\/a-bot-walks-into-a-bar-edinburgh-fringe-performers-use-ai-to-write-jokes\">Edinburgh fringe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk\u2019s X (formerly known as Twitter) is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/31\/technology\/twitter-x-center-for-countering-digital-hate.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes\">threatening to sue a media monitoring organisation<\/a> that tracks <strong>hate speech<\/strong> on the social network.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <strong>the giant glowing X sign<\/strong> on the company\u2019s San Francisco HQ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/jul\/31\/x-sign-lights-san-francisco-twitter-office-removed\">has been removed<\/a> after neighbours complained. This came after Musk <strong>reportedly blocked building inspectors<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/elon-musks-x-blocks-san-francisco-building-inspectors-from-giant-rooftop-sign-9dd12460\">from accessing the office to look at the sign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8cdda768-f7bf-4c7f-b021-a9869a1e70b2\">opened up an avenue to backtrack<\/a> (\u00a3) on its block of a massive <strong>$75<\/strong><strong>bn merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A 1970s programming language called Prolog, which helped the early development of AI, has been put to another use: deciphering <strong>how to game the UK\u2019s national lottery<\/strong> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2384455-mathematicians-find-27-tickets-that-guarantee-uk-national-lottery-win\/\">the maximum chance of success<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Should you take your phone to the bathroom? Scroll during a film? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2023\/jul\/27\/stop-phubbing-the-10-rules-of-smartphone-etiquette-from-the-bathroom-to-your-bed\">Paula Cocozza runs through<\/a> the <strong>10 rules of smartphone etiquette<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2023\/aug\/01\/techscape-environment-cost-ai-artificial-intelligence\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/d4ec6ec5e7ca7098603d56923f16fcbb90410501\/9_37_5103_3062\/master\/5103.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=019e9deb46e92e559eb094266331d705\" title=\"Turns out there\u2019s another problem with AI \u2013 its environmental toll\" \/>AI uses huge amounts of electricity and water to work, and the problem is only going to get worse \u2013 what can be done?<br \/>\n\u2022 Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here<br \/>\nTechnology never exists in a vacuum, and the rise of cryptocurrency in the last two or three years shows that. While plenty of people were making extraordinary amounts of money from investing in bitcoin and its competitors, there was consternation about the impact those get-rich-quick speculators had on the environment.<br \/>\nMining cryptocurrency was environmentally taxing. The core principle behind it was that you had to expend effort to get rich. To mint a bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, you had to first \u201cmine\u201d it. Your computer would be tasked with completing complicated equations that, if successfully done, could create a new entry on to the blockchain.<br \/>\nRupert Murdoch\u2019s News Corp is using AI to publish 3,000 local news stories a week in Australia.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s not just journalists at risk: AI is replacing comedians at the Edinburgh fringe.<br \/>\nElon Musk\u2019s X (formerly known as Twitter) is threatening to sue a media monitoring organisation that tracks hate speech on the social network.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, the giant glowing X sign on the company\u2019s San Francisco HQ has been removed after neighbours complained. This came after Musk reportedly blocked building inspectors from accessing the office to look at the sign.<br \/>\nThe UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority has opened up an avenue to backtrack (\u00a3) on its block of a massive $75bn merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.<br \/>\nA 1970s programming language called Prolog, which helped the early development of AI, has been put to another use: deciphering how to game the UK\u2019s national lottery for the maximum chance of success.<br \/>\nShould you take your phone to the bathroom? Scroll during a film? Paula Cocozza runs through the 10 rules of smartphone etiquette. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI uses huge amounts of electricity and water to work, and the problem is only going to get worse \u2013 what can be done? \u2022 Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here Technology never exists in a vacuum, and the rise of cryptocurrency in the last two or &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/01\/turns-out-theres-another-problem-with-ai-its-environmental-toll\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Turns out there\u2019s another problem with AI \u2013 its environmental toll<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}