I've never been so conflicted about a technology

Summary

Of course, I’m referring to AI (LLMs, specifically). A few weeks ago, I downloaded Cursor, an AI-based code editor, and I’m astonished at how good it is. I asked it a few questions about this blog’s codebase, and it responded quickly with detailed and accurate answers. I then prompted it to make a few changes, and it did what I wanted with minimal effort. I’ve since deleted Cursor because I already pay for GitHub Copilot. I primarily use Copilot as an advanced auto-complete tool, and it’s particularly helpful for handling repetitive tasks. There’s no doubt in my mind that AI can boost a developer’s productivity. It’s not perfect, and letting it write code for you has its pitfalls, but if you know your stuff, it can really speed things up. It’s easy to see how AI is going to make game-changing advances in all kind of industries. It really is an impressive technology. But there are huge downsides. Firstly, there’s the environmental impact. Models require massive amounts of electricity and water (to cool servers). An AI chatbot contributes more to the climate crisis than a Google search. What’s more concerning is the incredible amount companies like Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon are spending on new data centres to keep up with expected AI growth. As Noman Bashir at MIT points out: “The demand for new data centers cannot be met in a sustainable way. The pace at which companies are building new data centers means the bulk of the electricity to power them must come from fossil fuel-based power plants”. My naive optimism led me to believe that technology would help us fight climate change. I was wrong: AI and Crypto are net negatives in this regard. There are also ethical concerns regarding the methods used to obtain data for training AI models. Most models scrape the web (and many other forms of media) without permission or concern about licensing. Sources used to train models are kept secret. Content creators can't even determine which parts of their work were used to t...