Jevon’s paradox in action - improvements in the efficiency have caused our usage of these resources to soar.
If you think AI uses a lot of energy now, just wait until there’s commercially successful use-cases.
On the other hand it’s also no different from any other production process in our economy. Just newer. Why improve steel production if that’s just going to lead to more steel consumption?
If you didn’t want to maximize paperclips maybe it was/is a mistake to build our economy around paperclip maximizers.
