The dialog around AI resource use is frustratingly inane, because the benefits are never discussed in the same context.

LLMs/diffusers are inefficient from a traditional computing perspective, but they are also the most efficient technology humanity has created:

> AI systems (ChatGPT, BLOOM, DALL-E2, Midjourney) and human individuals performing equivalent writing and illustrating tasks. Our findings reveal that AI systems emit between 130 and 1500 times less CO2e per page of text generated compared to human writers, while AI illustration systems emit between 310 and 2900 times less CO2e per image than their human counterparts.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54271-x