Critics accuse Karen Hao of overstating AI data center water consumption in Empire of AI by up to five orders of magnitude due to unit conversion errors and misrepresented figures
Hao issued a correction after confirming a unit error.
#885Andrey Kurenkov@ANDREY_KURENKOVSeeing this take more often lately and think it's 100% wrong!
'AI wastes water' was already around and mainstream way before this book, and I doubt the book did much to elevate it in public consciousness. It's more like a meme...
@AndyMasley curious if you feel similarly?
Kane 謝凱堯@kaneThis is the author who thrust AI water hysteria into the mainstream by overestimating data center water use by 100,000% in her book Empire of AI by mixing up units. She is a source of wild misinformation. Imagine writing an Econ book on the premise that minimum wage is $7,250/hr
The error in the book itself was of course quite bad, but @_KarenHao 's response to it being pointed out was precisely what it should have been.
Andrey Kurenkov@andrey_kurenkovSeeing this take more often lately and think it's 100% wrong! 'AI wastes water' was already around and mainstream way before this book, and I doubt the book did much to elevate it in public consciousness. It's more like a meme... @AndyMasley curious if you feel similarly?
#1735Andy Masley@ANDYMASLEYYes can confirm this take is wrong. My next post will be on where the water misconceptions actually came from
Andrey Kurenkov@andrey_kurenkovSeeing this take more often lately and think it's 100% wrong! 'AI wastes water' was already around and mainstream way before this book, and I doubt the book did much to elevate it in public consciousness. It's more like a meme... @AndyMasley curious if you feel similarly?