Based on a newly released model for calculating this that is open sourced.
armcat•14m ago
Great writeup! I've done some work on Codecarbon [1] in the past, it's a pretty standard tool for measuring ML/AI workload emissions, it would be awesome to have your findings contributed to that project as well.
We can pretend that international trade and energy price arbitrage doesn't exist to make us feel nice and happy; but the reality is a Watt spent in Sweden increases the marginal cost of energy by the same amount as a Watt spent in Texas. These things are tied together by foreign exchange, imported energy intensive goods, petroleum products and directly imported power. It's time we stop being naive about energy use.
seanmcdirmid•7m ago
Sweden is not grid connected to Texas, well, nor is also any other grid in the USA actually. Smelting was placed near cheap hydro resources (and why Boeing built planes in Seattle) for good reasons. Just replace cheap watts with clean watts.
reedf1•3m ago
Because Sweden's clean energy capacity is fixed. Which means a Watt spent on inference is taking away a Watt spent on heating or steel. Which means it needs to buy energy or energy intensive goods on the global market, which raises prices, which means Texas is being paid.
shiandow•7m ago
I'm a bit confused. For one I am not sure why this must hold for something as difficult to transfer as energy, and I am not sure why it matters. Not all energy is the same, hence the title.
jlundberg•46m ago