Artificial intelligence can have a number of extremely useful benefits. For example, AI is being used to find the best conditions to produce green hydrogen, which could radically shake up the sustainable energy market. It's also being used in wildlife conservation efforts.
However, sometimes, it's simply not necessary to use AI, and one example of needlessly deploying the smart tech was found outside someone's local sandwich shop.
On the r/Wellthatsucks subreddit, the original poster shared an image of an ad for the shop's offering, which had a slightly unusual feature.
What looked like a meat filling between the sub roll from a distance appeared to be something else upon closer inspection, with the cold cuts morphing into human hands.
"I will never be able to unsee this," one Redditor said. "Seen many wild things on the good ole net to date but this one is unsettling and disturbing and unique enough that it will for sure stick."
Of course, the image also brought out the comedians in the community. One commenter described the picture as "Finger food," while another quipped that the image displayed a "Club Handwich."
Hilarity aside, this is an unusual use for AI that was ultimately wasteful. According to a study from AI startup Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon University, summarized by MIT Technology Review, generating an AI image uses as much energy as it takes to fully charge a smartphone.
It simply doesn't make sense why AI would be needed in this case. As one Redditor observed, "It's pretty sad when a sandwich shop can't even bother to take their own photo of a sandwich for their own advertising."
Further odd uses of AI have been shared on other Reddit channels. Some people have shared weird AI responses they got after performing a Google search.
🗣️ Do you think we use too much plastic in America?
🔘 Definitely 👍
🔘 Only some people 😅
🔘 Not really 👎
🔘 I'm not sure 🤷
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
It's clear AI is not going away any time soon, for better or worse, and that has some serious consequences for the planet.
As the International Energy Agency detailed, large "hyperscale" data centers required for AI consume the equivalent energy needed to power 350,000 to 400,000 electric vehicles.
Since most electricity is still sourced from dirty fuels, this will lead to a lot more planet-warming gases being produced after burning more coal, oil, and gas to keep up with energy demand.
With 2024 expected to be the hottest year on record, this is bad news if we want to reduce the rate of rising global temperatures.
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