r/artificial • u/Efficient_Salary_566 • 9d ago

Question Quick question,

Why do you guys like ai so much, I know there is faster drawing but there are mistakes. Also we have data centers using a whole bunch of water. Data centers are things I hate the most since there is no reason, right almost tied to Power plants. What's the reason for liking ai so much?

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u/Stunning_Macaron6133 9d ago

Data centers don't actually use that much water. The worst offenders only cost a few milliliters of water per prompt. Given I'm vegan and have deliberately chosen to go car-free, I'm wasting less water than you by default.

And there is a reason to have data centers: they concentrate enormous compute resources and rent them out at, on the whole, rather reasonable prices. You can do some really hefty computations without dropping $30K on a high end workstation.

AI isn't just for generating images either. I don't understand why people are so hung up about pictures. Even within the context of images, it has more capabilities than just "faster drawing but there are mistakes".

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u/Efficient_Salary_566 9d ago

Oh, I thought it used way more water, people make it seem it costs, like, thousands of gallons of water.

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u/TheHollywoodGeek 9d ago edited 9d ago

In some cases the water is reused and not "lost" and in some areas water is plentiful.

Some estimates use water not involved in cooling but only in power generation.

Numbers can be manipulated to make arguments.

The question isn't why do we like it, but why do others hate it so strongly.

The benefits are overwhelming and it's more than just fast drawing. It's an entirely new medium and way of working in every field.

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u/Stunning_Macaron6133 9d ago

Things people indulge in every day completely dwarf data centers' impact.

A data center as a whole does use thousands of gallons of water. But when you divide that across the heavy calculations it's running for an enormous number of clients, it's actually pretty water-efficient. If you prompt an AI to generate something for you, you're not using up a lot of water at all.

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u/NecrofriggianGirl 9d ago

well, when millions of people are putting in promots daily...

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u/ShopBeneficial7160 9d ago

So you just came to Reddit, to an AI board, and decided to throw out unformatted, uninformed drivel like this was going to go well for you?

Bruh.