[eloeffler]

Then you must also take that cost into account when calculating the cost of training LLMs, as well as the cost humans operating the devices and their respective individual brain development.

LLMs are always an additional cost, never more efficient because they add to the calculation, if you look at it that way.

[Closi]

Only if we are counting the cost to generate all the inputs to training, and not just the training itself - it just depends on the scope of the analysis.

(i.e. taken to the extreme, as humans learn from their environment, do we have to count all energy that has gone into creating the world as we know it?)

[daflip]

If taken to the extreme I can't help but quote Carl Sagan :-)

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe"