The purpose of Google's paper on energy and water consumption of their LLMs is to absolve individual users of their responsibility for the overall emissions and water usage. That way, they hope adoption will rise or at least not drop. The need the adoption to justify continued huge investments in data centres. And the damage of this investment is done even if the AI bubble would burst tomorrow.

https://limited.systems/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/
https://limited.systems/articles/the-insatiable-hunger-of-openai/

#FrugalComputing

The purpose of Google's paper on energy and water consumption of their LLMs is to absolve individual users of their responsibility for the overall emissions and water usage. That way, they hope adoption will rise or at least not drop. The need the adoption to justify continued huge investments in data centres. And the damage of this investment is done even if the AI bubble would burst tomorrow.

https://limited.systems/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/
https://limited.systems/articles/the-insatiable-hunger-of-openai/

#FrugalComputing

How the AI hype is pushing up emissions -- even if it never delivers.

https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/

#frugalcomputing

#ai #generativeAI
#DataCenters

My paper with @maswan

"Life Cycle Analysis for Emissions of Scientific Computing Centres"

has been accepted fro publication in European Physical Journal C !

We develop a detailed model for the LCA of (HPC) data centres, including embodied carbon, server replacement and expansion. It is also applicable to other data centres. We also share the source code.

It shows how important embodied carbon becomes when the grid has more renewables.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14365

#FrugalComputing

My paper with @maswan

"Life Cycle Analysis for Emissions of Scientific Computing Centres"

has been accepted fro publication in European Physical Journal C !

We develop a detailed model for the LCA of (HPC) data centres, including embodied carbon, server replacement and expansion. It is also applicable to other data centres. We also share the source code.

It shows how important embodied carbon becomes when the grid has more renewables.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14365

#FrugalComputing

This is why I write blog posts, as they reach a wider audience and therefore have more potential to change anything.

But I know that a blog post does not carry the same weight as a scientific paper, even if it has exactly the same content (I have done the experiment).

So that is how we lose.

(5/n=5)
#FrugalComputing

This is why I write blog posts, as they reach a wider audience and therefore have more potential to change anything.

But I know that a blog post does not carry the same weight as a scientific paper, even if it has exactly the same content (I have done the experiment).

So that is how we lose.

(5/n=5)
#FrugalComputing

This gets me thinking: this is how we lose. The tech industry can push "solutions" like this carbon-aware computing without having to justify anything. But as an academic, if I want to contest them through a scientific publication, the standards have to be very high. So high that I can't meet them in practice.
(3/n)
#FrugalComputing

I am writing a paper explaining that carbon-aware computing (moving data centre load to when/where emissions are low) is a distraction. I had the draft reviewed by a colleague, and it is clear that the paper will be rejected for lack of rigour.

I am a senior academic and I know about originality, significance and rigour. I know the paper is rigorous, but that is beside the points: the reviewers can easily criticise it for not being so, and that is what matters.

#FrugalComputing
(1/n)

When I wrote this, I still thought it was mostly bluff from the AI companies to keep the hype alive and talk up their share price. Now, it looks like they are really hell-bent on making my worst-case scenario a reality.

5 GW data centres means 10x the current largest ones, and these are already 10x compared to the largest ones from a few years ago. This is pure madness. For reference, all the nuclear in the UK produces 6 G, all wind 30 GW.

#FrugalComputing

https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/

When I wrote this, I still thought it was mostly bluff from the AI companies to keep the hype alive and talk up their share price. Now, it looks like they are really hell-bent on making my worst-case scenario a reality.

5 GW data centres means 10x the current largest ones, and these are already 10x compared to the largest ones from a few years ago. This is pure madness. For reference, all the nuclear in the UK produces 6 G, all wind 30 GW.

#FrugalComputing

https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/

This is in reaction to that article by Tim Bray.

"The real problem with the AI hype"

https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/

I wrote that 6 months ago.

#FrugalComputing

This is in reaction to that article by Tim Bray.

"The real problem with the AI hype"

https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/

I wrote that 6 months ago.

#FrugalComputing

It shows how important embodied carbon becomes when the grid has more renewables.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14365

#FrugalComputing

It shows how important embodied carbon becomes when the grid has more renewables.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14365

#FrugalComputing

The Whitelee wind farm near Glasgow, the largest on-shore wind farm in the UK and one of the largest in Europe, has a maximum generative capacity of 539 MW and covers an area of 55 km² (about the size of Manhattan).

Plans have been announced for an AI data centre of 550 MW, and this is one of five such sites planned in central Scotland. (1/3)

#FrugalComputing#GenAI