| ▲ | antirez 14 hours ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. If you can't convince yourself, after downloading Claude Code or Codex and playing with them for 1 week, that programming is completely revolutionized, there is nothing I can do: you have it at your fingertips and you search for facts I should communicate for you. 2. The US alone air conditioning usage is around 4 times the energy / CO2 usage of all the world data centers (not just AI) combined together. AI is 10% of the data centers usage, so just AC is 40 times that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | keybits 10 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I enjoyed about your blog post, but I was curious about the claim in point 2 above. I asked Claude and it seems the claim is false: # Fact-Checking This Climate Impact Claim Let me break down this claim with actual data: ## The Numbers *US Air Conditioning:* - US A/C uses approximately *220-240 TWh/year* (2020 EIA data) - This represents about 6% of total US electricity consumption *Global Data Centers:* - Estimated *240-340 TWh/year globally* (IEA 2022 reports) - Some estimates go to 460 TWh including cryptocurrency *AI's Share:* - AI represents roughly *10-15%* of data center energy (IEA estimates this is growing rapidly) ## Verdict: *The claim is FALSE* The math doesn't support a 4:1 ratio. US A/C and global data centers use *roughly comparable* amounts of energy—somewhere between 1:1 and 1:1.5, not 4:1. The "40 times AI" conclusion would only work if the 4x premise were true. ## Important Caveats 1. *Measurement uncertainty*: Data center energy use is notoriously difficult to measure accurately 2. *Rapid growth*: AI energy use is growing much faster than A/C 3. *Geographic variation*: This compares one country's A/C to global data centers (apples to oranges) ## Reliable Sources - US EIA (Energy Information Administration) for A/C data - IEA (International Energy Agency) for data center estimates - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory studies The quote significantly overstates the disparity, though both are indeed major energy consumers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | vultour 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
So you don't actually have anything to support your argument other than "trust me bro". Oh, how the mighty have fallen. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | oulipo2 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. "if you can't convince yourself by playing anecdotically" is NOT "facts" 2. it's not because the US is incredibly bad at energy spending in AC that it somehow justifies the fact that we would add another, mostly unnecessary, polluting source, even if it's slightly lower. ACs have existed for decades. AI has been exploding for a few years, so we can definitely see it go way, way past the AC usage also the idea is of "accelerationnism". Why do we need all this tech? What good does it make to have 10 more silly slop AI videos and disinformation campaigns during election? Just so that antirez can be a little bit faster at doing his code... that's not what the world is about. Our world should be about humans, connecting together (more slowly, not "faster"), about having meaningful work, and caring about planetary resources The exact opposite of what capitalistic accelerationism / AI is trying to sell us | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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