Opinion: The high cost of artificial intelligence – Winnipeg Free Press

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It never hurts to say thank you — unless, it turns out, you’re talking to a machine.
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It never hurts to say thank you — unless, it turns out, you’re talking to a machine.
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Opinion
It never hurts to say thank you — unless, it turns out, you’re talking to a machine.
Sam Altman, CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, said last week that it is costing his company tens of millions of dollars in energy costs because ChatGPT’s user base is taking up extra processing power by saying “please” and “thank you” to it.
Altman was on the glib side when speaking to online users about the expense, posting on X that the money was “well spent — you never know.”
markus schreiber / The Associated Press files
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Those who are worried about a potential future Terminator scenario might agree that it can’t hurt to be nice to artificial intelligence models while we have the chance.
But realistically, Altman’s revelation about what such a simple thing costs, both to his company and the rest of us, should provoke serious thought about the usefulness and practicality of artificial intelligence.
Tech moguls are working hard to sell the public, and world governments, on the many supposed uses of artificial intelligence. And while it hasn’t been entirely without its uses — the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says it’s being used to, for example, chart methane emissions — it’s more commonly encountered output leaves much to be desired.
Faked photographs sow disinformation in a time where we must sort out truth from fiction more than ever in online spaces. Artists tear their hair out as millions gleefully turn to AI to churn out ripoff “art” at the expense of those whose work was fed into AI’s cavernous maw. Teachers furrow their brows over essays their students didn’t write, evidenced by the tortured language and bizarre non sequiturs only a machine-generated essay can provide.
And now, in a time where wealth inequality and economic hardship are going concerns in the world, one tech CEO admits his AI model is so energy-inefficient that courtesy phrases run up the tab by tens of millions — and says the money is “well spent.”
But money isn’t the only thing AI is costing us.
The UNEP stated in a September 2024 article that AI consumes a great deal of energy, as well as water. They “rely on critical minerals and rare elements, which are often mined unsustainably.” And the server farms which power the learning models are producers of electronic waste.
Something has clearly gone amiss in the world of tech.
Our sci-fi-infused popular culture tends to see tech innovators as people with their eye on the future; people who want to create something which launches us into a future that is as prosperous and comfortable as it is unknown. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in 2025.
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At present, tech moguls like Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have repeatedly bet the future on pet obsessions with artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency — two purely digital products which seem to do nothing better than devour both power and money.
The post-scarcity world of Star Trek feels a long way off indeed.
And if we want to limit the damage of AI, we’ll have to limit its implementation — meaning governments will have to push back on the tech sector’s ability to suck up useful resources in the name of their risky bet.
It’s easy for the wastefulness of AI to slip under the radar amid the myriad other problems with which we are now bombarded. But at some point, hopefully in the very near future, leaders in Canada and abroad will take a hard look at this technology which can be of such questionable utility, yet cost so very much to run.
As we contend with an escalating climate crisis, there will be many difficult choices. But clamping down on the proliferation of extremely inefficient, suboptimal technologies should be an easy one to make.
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This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!