This is a follow-up post to my previous one on the use of AI coding for homebrew projects. I provided some technical arguments on code quality and maintainability there; but in this post I will discuss one of the impacts on the world I have observed from the use of AI, and why I consider continued use to be unethical and dangerous. You are welcome to skip this one if you believe technology is seperate from politics - though please look up “persona openai id check” sometime.
I will aruge that using AI tools, for coding or otherwise, is directly causing global policital instability and hurting public safety. Let’s begin by examining the USA’s electricity budget.
We can see generation has remained relatively constant at 4000 TWh (terawatt-hours) since 2010. Coal has been slowly phasing out in favour of a lot of natural gas and a small amount of reneweables. You might remember hearing a lot about fracking for gas in the early 2010’s - now you know.
How much electricity does AI and the wider tech industry consume?
So, it was roughly 150 TWh in 2023-24, roughly 3.75-4%. Envelope math, here. If U.S. electricity generation remains constant, as it has for the past decade, this projection says AI and datacenters will consume 10% (400TWh) of all electricity.
This seems unsustainable. I suppose the industry will burn itself out once they can’t get electrical supply, then?
- Global Infi Research - but you can find this info anywhere
Berkshire Hathaway is an investment and holding firm, and Eli Lilly is a pharmaceutical company (still waiting on that free insulin). Every other company in the top 10 is involved in or primarily focused on AI.
If you want a laugh, look up the 2015 data sometime and compare. The lack of Wal-Mart, General Electric, Exxon in the modern data is.. something.
Okay, so it turns out the majority of the U.S. economy is depending on AI firms. Allowing them to fail would cause a market crash and retirement funds to fail, so we can’t do that. We’ll need some more electricity, then.
Where can we get lots of electricity on short notice?
Accoridng to U.S. President Trump, they have received 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela after they invaded the country in January.
That’s 186 TWh of electricity. It would be poetic that this number is nearly exactly the electricity use of U.S. datacenters in 2024, if it wasn’t so sad.
I don’t think anyone outside the U.S. can ethically use American AI products at this point. By conversing with them, using the free or paid plans, and making them part of your workflow, you are driving demand for the industry and demand for U.S. electricity generation. That electricity is being taken by military force from smaller countries. We all boycotted Russian goods when they invaded Ukraine, and I would propose it’s our responsibility as citizens of the world to do the same here.
I live in Australia. We have things pretty good here - politically stable and free compared to many other places. We also have a history of strong diplomatic ties to the U.S. Our number 2 export is coal, behind iron. Australia has been slowly winding up its mining industry to look towards hydrogen, batteries and emergent renewable technology. When I see the U.S. action towards Venezuela or Greenland, I fear that we may be “incentivised” in similar ways to reverse course, and if that escalates, my personal safety could be at risk. It’s far-fetched, sure, but the invasion of a South American country without even coming up with a fake cover reason was far-fetched a few months ago, too.
I’m transgender. If I lived in a place where Trump took over - like Venezuela - I could expect to be persecuted and legislated against. I would be denied life-saving healthcare, which is currently informed consent for adults in my state. I could be denied a passport.
With that context, I think I’m justified being scared. I think, and I hope my friends can agree, we must avoid creating more reasons for them to interfere with other countries - like mine. Using U.S. AI products does that; as has been shown in Venezuela, Greenland, Iran. No hobbyist homebrew project is worth that damage.