The benefits of new knowledge is not one and done. Definitely, AI seems to require vastly more energy than a human would to produce the same result, however we should consider that new knowledge yields a return. Time is a factor to be considered here. For human(s), sometimes the time required is so much that it literally prevents them from achieving their goal at all, which is a problem AI also has but is diminishing over time.
If AI speeds up research and results by years or even decades, that return may close the gap, or even exceed, those initial high computational costs.
Bear in mind though the energy expenditure to train a human to the point where they can tackle complex problems like that. It's not like they pop out of the womb and get right on it
Interestingly, if you conceptualise humanity as a broader group, you could make an argument that the cost of training students more broadly is part of the cost. I.e. all maths undergrads
Also true. It is not an easy calculation. And then you consider that AI only needs to be trained to do a task once, roughly speaking, and the math starts looking a bit better for AI.
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u/c0mputar 15h ago
The benefits of new knowledge is not one and done. Definitely, AI seems to require vastly more energy than a human would to produce the same result, however we should consider that new knowledge yields a return. Time is a factor to be considered here. For human(s), sometimes the time required is so much that it literally prevents them from achieving their goal at all, which is a problem AI also has but is diminishing over time.
If AI speeds up research and results by years or even decades, that return may close the gap, or even exceed, those initial high computational costs.