“All that glitters is not gold.”
In a very short span of time, almost everyone is knowingly or unknowingly using AI applications. All of a sudden, it began as a tech revolution, and it started impacting almost all job sectors and almost all aspects of life.
Before I start, I would like to make my point clear. I am not against narrow AI, but I am against Artificial General Intelligence(AGI) & Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). The question is, why?
The builders of this are promising a utopia that is never going to exist. Before we build AGI /ASI, we need to ask ourselves whether we are mature enough to handle that.
I believe we are not! The power of this technology is much bigger than the atomic bomb we have created.
Let’s have a look at the different aspects that made me believe that we are not ready for this:
Environmental Damage
I would like to quote the words of Sam Altman, Founder of OpenAI said in 2015
“AI will probably most likely sort to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there will be great companies created with serious machine learning powers.”
In 2025, he said. “The world needs a lot more processing power … that like tiling datacenters on earth, which I think is what it looks like in the short term and long term..”
So he knew what would happen, but the need of the hour is more power. ( More power to make that happen!? I am not sure.)
Where is this power coming from? We don’t have this much power right now. So this means we have to increase the power plants and solar plants in this world. Let’s look at some recent data so that you understand the scale of things.
Feb 2025: In one day, ChatGPT used enough power to charge 11,066 electric cars or 8,000,000 Phones from 0–100% (39.98 GHh), raising to the power 1/2. If we go this route in one year, ChatGPT alone will use more power than 117 Countries (14.592 TWh), raising to the power 1/3.
According to the Dec 2024 calculations and predictions, by 2028, AI power usage will grow 927% to 2055% (150 to 1300TWh), raising to the power of 14.
Based on the data, it’s calculated that by 2027, annual water usage of AI will be equal to half the UK’s annual water usage.
Now, you might think, how are these AI companies going to get this much power? The fact is, all of these AI companies are investing in power plants and power projects.
In the last decade, there has not been even one nuclear power plant commissioned in USA, but this year alone, they have signed agreements for five new nuclear power plants — all planned to be commissioned by 2030 and fully backed or owned by these tech giants. They are not stopping there, they are busy making earth look like a mirror by installing solar panels all around the world, and there are those so-called philanthropists who are behind the new power sources that could solve the power crisis.
This means we are either unaware of what is happening, or kept blind by the authorities and media, or we don’t bother until it shows up on our doorstep.
Data Centers that are coming up like mushrooms after rain
Earlier data centers used to be on the outskirts; they were always away from cities, but that is changing. It’s coming up everywhere, close to almost all neighborhoods.
We need more computational power and these data centers are popping up everywhere. All they want is more computational power.
Have a look at https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/
If you zoom into the US, you can see it coming up close to the water sources. They don’t mind if it is close to where people live, because all of these data centers need large amounts of water to cool them down. So it doesn’t matter if it’s going to be near a township or in the middle of a city or village. They need computational power and water to cool it down.
Social Impact:
A less talked-about problem.
According to the utopia painted by these tech giants, in the world of GenAI & ASI is that the people will be freed from economic necessity and could pursue creative, spiritual, and intellectual endeavors, while governments and corporations will have abundant resources to support the general public. Everyone will have government support, and most of us won’t have to go to work.
But
The most profound question is :If you dont have anything to do then , What will you do with the “8hours” of your day?.
“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Psychologists and social scientists warn that prolonged idleness and disconnection could lead to a rise in antisocial and sociopathic behavior. Yet, it seems this possibility is either being overlooked or conveniently ignored by those shaping the narrative of the AI-driven future.
We always had tools, with the invention of each tool, tasks that once required ten workers can now be done by just four.
But this is the first time we are inventing an inventor. Something that can invent new things without our help.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not against AI. I am all in for narrow AI, but I am against General-purpose AI
I believe we and the world is not ready for this. Until we know how to build them safely and keep them under democratic control, we should pause them
As Roman Yampolskiy says, “Now the race of ASI is like the race during the Second World War period, where every country was behind the atom bomb. They knew whoever created that was going to control the world.”
Nearly a century after the Second World War, we stand on the brink of the next monumental discovery, the one that will define who controls the future. But this is far greater than the atomic bomb.
“Because, an atomic bomb cannot create another bomb by itself, but this new creation can replicate, evolve, and expand beyond human comprehension.Similar to your cat or dog could never grasp the countless ways humans could harm them.”
We may never fully grasp what this technology is truly capable of. But we could decide what the future is by acting now.
What we need is a consortium like how nuclear technology is controlled to make sure this does not get into the wrong hands. Many forums and associations fight for this.
If you could connect to what I said above, then you could sign this petition and show your support :
“If you take the existential risk seriously, as I now do, it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further”. : Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel prize winner and Godfather of AI
Trooming 