Posted on 09/16/2023 4:30:09 PM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
AI has shown dramatic potential in many fields, and there is no doubt that it will knock some occupations on the head. This article chronicles how AI may revolutionize fields such as medicine, automotive, agriculture, and entertainment.
So anyway, all great stuff, right? Except…what does this mean for energy?
AI is a power hog the likes of which it is, frankly, hard to imagine. And it is about to explode in size. Consider these few examples......
(Long read, but do it......)
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
That’s why we will have to bicycle, so AI gets more energy.
How much electricity does the human brain produce again?
We may see a “Butlerian Jihad” in our lifetime!
The brain uses about 20% of your body’s energy usage.
Using a conversion conversion chart, from calories to wattage, 300 calories = about 0.3489 watts/day. So, the average brain uses around 0.3489 watts/day.
The human body is amazingly efficient.
Excellent article.
Sorry to go off-topic with regards to AI, but how’s the strike going in Hollywood? I’ve honestly not heard a word, and I really don’t care, other than to see them crash and burn.
The Matrix was awesome when it came out.
The others sucked and the writers became trannies…
Well if the intelligence is actually artificial, someone should be able to fool it with a global warming hoax.
3 minutes air
3 hours freezing exposure
3 days water
3 weeks food
I was thinking of the Matrix movies
Which AI? What AI? I swear, everything posted about AI acts as if it’s a monolithic, all-knowing program of godlike proportions. The reality is that there are thousands of AI programs accomplishing hundreds of tasks. I figure the LLMs are the problem, but that’s only until AI porn comes mainstream. ;)
“A computer can play Go and even beat humans…But it will take a computer something like 100 kilowatts to do so while our brains do it for just 20 watts.”So the brain is 5,000 times more power efficient.
Our brains are way more efficient than that, multiples of that.
At least, according to the websites I found. The brain consumes about 400-500 calories per day. That works out to be about 1/3 of a single watt per day.
That’s not even a penny of power/day if we had to pay for what the brain uses.
AI will build their own nuclear power plants without us even knowing.
Anybody remember Colossus?
A watt is a unit of POWER. A watt-hour is a unit of ENERGY. (A calorie is a unit of ENERGY. But the figure you cited should actually be expressed in KILOcalories - a common mistake; the food-energy values we all know are actually KILOcalories.)
One watt-hour is equivalent to 859.8 Kcalories. So 300 Kcalories are equivalent to 2.87 watt-hours.
Thus, if the brain consumes 300 kcalories per day, that would be equivalent to 0.287 watt-hours per day.
In short: Your math is faulty, and you are also using incorrect units.
The correct figure is: The average human brain - when at rest - consumes approx. 287 watt-hours per day.
The amount of energy the brain consumes when actively thinking is not much greater: That's because most of the brain's energy output serves merely to keep approx. 3 lbs of living tissue warm and alive.
Regards,
All right. So, how much in power, as far as cost goes, is the brain using?
In my province, that’s about 5 cents. Still very efficient.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.