Re: Environmental impact of Debian's AI usage

On Thu, Aug 13, 2026 at 07:39:02AM +0200, Bas Wijnen wrote:
>If we look at the effects of LLMs on the world, I'm not sure how 
>anyone can ignore all the problems. They've been listed before, but 
>just to repeat a few: it uses so much energy that residents near data 
>centers asked to limit their use, otherwise the network cannot take 
>it. Same thing for drinking water. They convince governments to 
>subsidize the data centers, which leads to reduced services for the 
>local population, because they don't have the money. People are using 
>chat bots instead of talking to other people, which is resulting in 
>less community, more isolation, and it makes some people go crazy. 
>Every creative platform is overrun with slop.
>
>On the pro side we have "with a lot of effort (that most people are 
>not going to put in), it is now possible to write good code a little 
>faster" and "we can more easily find bugs".
>
>Comparing these, it is not hard to understand that when looking more 
>globally, LLMs are a negative influence on the world.
>
>This is why I believe Debian should make a statement to the world, 
>telling people "you are not crazy, LLMs are indeed a huge problem". 
>Not because we personally cause all of that, but because we are 
>experts in this field 

[...]

>If we look more globally at the travel problem, I think it is true 
>that we should both limit the amount of travel (by allowing people to 
>work from home, for example) and also to limit the modes that pollute 
>the most (planes and cars). This is however not something that Debian 
>has expertise on

TBH I don't see a large difference in the Debian expertise level between 
travel and all the things from the first quoted part like "talking to 
other people", "creative platform" or "drinking water".

-- 
WBR, wRAR

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