For The Love Of AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undeniably taken the world by storm. Slap the AI label on anything, and it's bound to get noticed. Like any new technological advancement, the use and misuse of this technology are rampant. We've all received an email or seen a work product that screamed "AI-generated." I’ve personally sent work back because it was just a series of well-structured words in English, devoid of any real depth. We’ve all seen those AI-generated sales and marketing emails that are meaningless and clog our already full mailboxes. Here’s an easy pro-tip for those guilty as charged: put your real name instead of [Your Name], and delete the prompt response from the AI output before hitting send!

AI has the potential to revolutionize how we work, communicate, and create, but its misuse can lead to superficial and ineffective communication. Consider the case of OpenAI’s GPT-3 being used to generate automated news articles. While some articles were coherent, others were lacking depth and context, highlighting the importance of human oversight. While AI can assist in organizing thoughts and generating content, it cannot replace the authenticity and emotional intelligence of human input. Properly harnessed, AI can be a powerful tool, but it must be used thoughtfully and ethically to add real value.

The AI 1.0 Business Model

The current AI tools, let’s call them AI 1.0, are often marketed with a powerful freemium version. For a small monthly fee, you get a more powerful paid version that can read attachments, generate graphics, and more. Regardless of the small amounts being collected for the premium version, it's hard to see how this business model will become profitable at $20/month. Currently, AI requires computing power from thousands of servers housed in data centers, which need massive amounts of electricity. Something will have to change: either processors will need to consume less power, we will need to find vast amounts of clean power, or demand will need to be curtailed.

The Root Cause of AI Misuse

The root cause of AI misuse and abuse is that people aren't starting with their own original thoughts. As Henry Ford famously said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” AI chat tools excel at taking original ideas and structuring them into cohesive paragraphs using vast databases to predict how sentences and paragraphs should be structured. However, AI cannot express original thoughts, genuine emotion, or emotional intelligence. AI results can be significantly enhanced when directed to a data set relevant to your organization or contextual to your queries. This is where the next generation of AI tools, let’s call them AI 2.0, will start to have a massive business impact.

The Power for AI

With advancements in processing technology over the past decade, data center workloads nearly tripled between 2015 and 2019, yet power demand remained flat at 200 terawatt-hours per year due to more efficient servers and processors. However, this changed with the advent of AI. According to Goldman Sachs, a ChatGPT query needs nearly ten times as much electricity as a Google search query. For perspective, Nvidia literally sells half a million of its H100 AI GPUs per quarter, each consuming up to 700W of power when operating, which is more than an average US household. The same Goldman Sachs research estimates that AI could increase data center power consumption by as much as our total consumption in 2019, around another 200 terawatt-hours per year!

Where will that power come from? There are several ways to quench this thirst for energy:

1. Better Technology: NVIDIA’s AI chips are extremely power-hungry. Technological advancements and competitive approaches could make these chips less power-intensive.

2. Charging for AI at Its True Cost: If we do that, then adoption might decrease, potentially stalling technological advancements. However, not everything labeled AI will survive. There will be a few winners and many losers.

3. Locating Data Centers Near Renewable Energy Sources: This could help mitigate the energy consumption issue. However, once we solve the energy issue, we must also address the connectivity issue. The data center industry has delicately balanced this since the advent of the internet.

AI Going Nuclear

Both Microsoft and AWS are building mini nuclear power plants to power their AI initiatives. Nuclear power is a potential power source for AI because it can meet the large amounts of electricity that AI data centers require. As the modern economy becomes more integrated with AI technologies, so will their demand for energy and scale. Some say that nuclear power could help avoid exacerbating climate change. As of July 2024, tech companies like Amazon Web Services are in talks with nuclear power plant owners to provide electricity for new data centers. However, there are some uncertainties to consider, including:

• Timelines: A U.S. nuclear renaissance may have a limited impact during a period of rapidly increasing electricity demand.

• Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies: These technologies may not be ready for commercial use for years or decades.

• Proliferation Risks: Executives should evaluate the risks of nuclear power honestly and transparently, including the dangers of reprocessing.

Ethical Implications No One is Talking About

Pundits are talking about the ethical implications of using AI, such as plagiarism, privacy concerns, job obsoletion, and universal income. While AI is powerful when used correctly, it can sometimes increase workloads instead of decreasing them. A pressing issue is the creation of AI-generated deep fakes and phishing emails, which generate worthless and dangerous workloads for society.

Another problem is the proliferation of overly wordy emails and long documents. Generative AI should improve communication, not think for you. One of the most crucial skills right now is learning to write your original thoughts, prompt effectively, and genuinely edit the final AI version to reflect your original intent and voice.

With non-renewable energy sources being depleted because AI is used to create "novels" that could be summarized in 140-character statements, we're hastily building nuclear power plants to satisfy our addiction to instantaneous gratification.

While we should support safe nuclear energy, we must also use our brains and faculties wisely. AI's ethical implications extend beyond convenience and efficiency; they impact our energy consumption, security, and the authenticity of human expression. It’s essential to approach AI use thoughtfully and responsibly to harness its true potential.

This article was originally published in Forbes by Emil Sayegh on July 13, 2024: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilsayegh/2024/07/16/for-the-love-of-ai/