POUSSEletter 4: artificial intelligence

Welcome to POUSSEletter, the letter that cultivates your well-being at work.

Each week, we share with you:
🥰 1 inspiring and positive news
🌱 A blog post
🎤 1 resource to progress
✍️ 1 quote that nourishes
❓ 1 question to think about

Reading time: 4 mins

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Before you begin: cardiac coherence

This technique reduces secretions of cortisol, the stress hormone, and limits its impact on the heart: reduction in heart rate, blood pressure, and even blood sugar levels. To try without delay!

1. Exhale to fully empty the lungs.
2. Breathe in slowly through your nose while mentally counting to 5.
3. Exhale through your mouth for a count of 5.
4. Repeat this cycle 6 to 10 times.

The theme of the week

AI AND THE ENVIRONMENT: GOOD OR TERRIBLE IDEA?

Artificial intelligence is gaining ground in our daily lives. Released on Christmas 2022 as a gift from Silicon Valley, ChatGPT won worldwide admiration. It is now used every day by millions of users to accomplish various tasks, such as translating content, writing articles or computer code, creating cooking recipes, inspiring speeches or even letters of motivation.

The powers of AI and its impact on society are hotly debated intellectually and philosophically. But what about its impact on the environment? Because if AI solutions contribute to preventing or remedying certain environmental damage, other models such as deep learning aggravate the ecological danger.

While its use is destined to spread further, it is necessary to educate oneself to disentangle the true from the false. Investigation.

It questions us

To prepare this POUSSEletter, we read dozens of articles on the impact of ChatGPT and AIs in general on the environment.

First observation: we don't really talk about it yet in the media, even though the enthusiasm (and fascination) for this tool straight out of a science fiction film is increasing day by day.

Our hypothesis to explain this paradox: the normality bias , this cognitive bias that leads people to deny or minimize warnings about a danger.

Because it's certain: ChatGPT and AI are a major revolution, and we are far from seeing all the ins and outs, positive and negative.

We summarize what we discovered about AI and the environment.

👎 What is problematic:

• According to a University of California study , training AI to make it a relevant tool cost 552 tCO2e, or 1287 MWh: around 550 round trips between New York and San Francisco, or 1,576,272 miles by car .
• A study of the Medium media, based on assumptions, considers that ChatGPT's daily carbon footprint is 23.04 kgCO2e . This is equivalent to 8.4 tCO2e/year, or 12 years of electric heating consumption for a 110m² house in France, according to ADEME data.
• The numbers above are estimates. Obtaining information on the energy costs required to operate AI is difficult. Microsoft, OpenAI and even Google do not communicate on it.
• Millions of users now use ChatGPT every day for all kinds of queries. And this figure increases every day, which pushes other companies like Huawei to work on AI models that are even more energy-intensive, because they are composed of more parameters.
• ChatGPT will allow a certain number of Internet users to produce even more content, polluting by the way, the web of hyper-recycled information that no longer brings added value. This is " infobesity ".

👍 What is positive:

• The environmental impact of AI will improve over time. Meta has led the way with its LLaMA 7B model, which is much lighter in code. Stanford University followed suit with its much less expensive and energy-intensive Alpaca model. Some developers have already been able to install ChatGPT clones locally on their machines.
• Ultimately, the use of AI with its democratization will certainly have no more environmental impact than a simple query on a search engine.
• AI can help solve some of the most pressing environmental challenges by improving energy efficiency , reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and helping preserve natural ecosystems. For example, AI can be used to optimize energy consumption in buildings, factories and power grids to identify inefficiencies and waste.
• AI can help protect natural ecosystems by monitoring habitats and endangered species . It can analyze data from environmental sensors to detect changes in environmental conditions and behaviors of animal species, allowing action to be taken to protect ecosystems.
• AI can be used to help reduce waste generation and promote recycling using computer vision algorithms to identify different types of materials.

👍 Tips:

• Use ChatGPT as a tool, but only when you really need it . If you have a simple question, go through a search engine or Wikipedia. The result will be the same, with a lower cost to the planet. Stay sober and proportionate in your uses: it's a bit like taking a plane for a 10-minute trip.
• If you use AI on a daily basis, avoid training it for unnecessary tasks that impact the environment , such as writing articles from existing similar content or sending spam. (PS: it's your sign to empty the trash of your mailbox!).
• educate yourself about the benefits and limitations of AI, and educate others about the importance of ethical and responsible use of these technologies.

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POUSSE talks about it

AI and revegetation: a winning combination for sustainable workspaces

Sustainable workspaces have become a major issue in our current society. To respond to this, the greening of workspaces is an effective solution. It improves the quality of life of employees and reduces the carbon footprint of companies.

Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) invites itself into this greening process to optimize workspaces. Find out how on our blog.
Read the article

In our ears

THE SQUARED EARTH PODCAST WITH MATHIEU VIDARD
Artificial intelligence: good or bad idea for the planet?

Thanks to its machine learning algorithms, AI makes it possible to improve climate modeling and develop projections that are very useful for ecology. But at the same time, the energy impact of these AI tools is growing at an exponential rate.

Mathieu Vidard develops the question in this episode of La Terre au Carré.

Listen to the podcast

The quote of the week

"Progress is impossible without a reasonable faith in eternal ideals, and without a reasonable confidence in man."
-John Dewey

The question of the week

✍️ AND YOU, CHATGPT, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The POUSSE team was asked to answer the question:

Aurélien, our Landscape Designer, and Baptiste, our Plant Scenographer, replied with one voice: "it's scary and brilliant at the same time!".

And for you ? To share your story, a thought, an advice, click on the "Reply" button. We will share our exchanges in the next POUSSEletter.

Can't wait to read you!

Answer to previous question

✍️ WHAT IS BEING PRODUCTIVE FOR YOU?

"For me being productive means putting a wow in the eyes of customers 😁"
- Genevieve

"To each make a beneficial contribution to the world. Which implies questioning the purpose of one's work before concentrating on the quality of the means implemented. Einstein said it better than that..."

- Veronica