www.astralcodexten.com/p/links-for-january-2025
2 corrections found
GPT-3, took 1.3 mWh to train
The unit here is off by a factor of a billion: published estimates put GPT-3’s training electricity use at about 1,287 megawatt-hours, not 1.3 milliwatt-hours.
Full reasoning
This appears to be a unit typo, but it is a very large one.
Multiple MIT sources summarizing the published estimate for GPT-3’s training energy put it at roughly 1,287–1,300 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity. By contrast, 1.3 mWh means 1.3 milliwatt-hours, which is one-billionth as large.
So the post’s figure is not just slightly off; it uses the wrong unit and understates the training energy by about 10^9.
A correct shorthand would be something like ~1,300 MWh or ~1.3 GWh.
2 sources
- Explained: Generative AI's environmental impact | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In a 2021 research paper, scientists from Google and the University of California at Berkeley estimated the training process alone consumed 1,287 megawatt hours of electricity.
- AI models are devouring energy. Tools to reduce consumption are here, if data centers will adopt. | MIT Lincoln Laboratory
The GPUs that trained GPT-3 ... are estimated to have consumed 1,300 megawatt-hours of electricity.
all further inquiry into the instance have been barred by the Us government.
This is false: there were multiple later inquiries and formal reconsiderations of Lewis’s death, including a National Park Service hearing and later exhumation requests reviewed by the government.
Full reasoning
The U.S. government did not bar all further inquiry after the original ruling.
There were substantial later proceedings about Meriwether Lewis’s death:
- In 1997, the National Park Service granted a discretionary hearing for reconsideration of a request to exhume Lewis’s remains.
- In 1998, the National Park Service issued a decision on that exhumation request.
- In 2002, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee asked the Park Service to exhume Lewis’s body, and the Park Service was considering that request.
Those facts are incompatible with the claim that "all further inquiry" had been barred by the U.S. government. The history may be contentious, but there clearly were later official reviews, hearings, petitions, and government decisions.
2 sources
- GW LAW PROFESSOR AND FORENSIC SCIENTIST JAMES E. STARRS' REQUEST FOR EXHUMATION OF EXPLORER MERIWETHER LEWIS TO BE REVIEWED AT HEARING DEC. 16 IN ATLANTA, GA
The National Park Service had previously denied Starrs' petition to examine Lewis' remains, but granted this discretionary hearing for reconsideration of the exhumation application.
- NCC Advocacy Update, April 2002 - AHA
Back in July 1998, the NPS denied a research request for the exhumation ... The Service is considering the Senator's request; a decision is expected in the near future.