[perf99999999999]

Brendan, I'm a big fan of your book, and work. I don't have a problem with you joining OpenAI; best of luck there!

However, I'm not sure your analysis is quite correct, in this case.

If OpenAI can mobilize X (giga)dollars to buy Y amounts of energy, your work there will not reduce X or Y, it will simply help them produce more "tokens" (or whatever "unit of AI") for a given amount of energy.

So in a sense you're helping make OpenAI tools better, more effective, but it's not helping reduce resource usage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

[bagacrap]

One day if openai becomes a real company (and public), like the kind that takes money from customers and employe accountants and turns a profit, etc, there may be downward pressure on the "costs" side of the equation.

Also while the thirst for training may be insatiable, I could see the energy cost of "hey chat can you check the basketball score" coming down.

[ulnarkressty]

Was going to say the same thing, but I'm pretty sure he already knows that. Smart people can convince themselves of everything.

[MonkeyClub]

Anyone can convince themselves of anything, the only thing that varies is the complexity of the rationalization.

[pillefitz]

And the consequence of burning more tokens, of course, is more widespread adoption, weaving AI more deeply into the fabric of our reality.

[bigyabai]

That's a possible second-order effect, but not guaranteed.