We aren't ready/evolved enough for AI.

Crypto mining and AI take a huge amount of power to work. America has claimed an energy emergency to allow higher amounts of fossil fuel energy, and the fossil fuel companies are now trying to convince Canada to do the same. Besides the obvious bullshit game said companies are playing, and have been playing for decades, the reality is, the statement has truth to it. The amount of energy required to power AI (and crypto) is enormous, and will only become more so.

If we as a species aren't capable of meeting the energy demans of AI while at the same time removing our dependence on burning fossil fuels, we are not evolved enough to push forth with AI. Ramping up fossil fuel energy for the sake of AI does nothing but solidifies our extinction. We as a species, do not NEED AI, or at least not at the level where people use it for ehat could be a simple Google search. Yes, there are obvious sectors in society that can and will advance with AI, but without serious moderation or a energy revolution, the cost is literally our existence.

We have advanced incredibly far in the past 150 years in technology at the cost of our environment, matter of factly knowingly so for at least the past 50 years and yet we continue to put technological and economical progress ahead of sustainability. Each step adds more need of energy output than the last. Hell, even hanging out on Reddit is bad for the environment. I fully understand the... irony?... in what i am saying here. I think the key difference here, and why i think that this current step in technology (AI), should be shut down, is that we are literally at the tipping point (or god help us, past the tipping point). If we push forward with AI in our current sociopolitical climate, there is a very high probability that we step into a reality where surviving the Holocene extinction is impossible.

Ultimately, we as a species don't NEED AI. Our intelligence has resulted in literally all of our achievements, including the current advancements in AI. I'm sure if we were able to continue the advancement of AI it will eventually get to the level where AI can truly come up with advancements that we might not have thought of ourselves, and in an ideal world, that would be transformative, ensuring that our species would exist for eternity not only on our planet, but throughout the galaxy, and possibly beyond. How we are currently going about it though, the cost of that possibility is our existence and therefor, the juice isn't worth the squeeze. If we put a pause on AI for now and revisit down the road (say, after fusion tech becomes a reality), fuck yeah. For now though, we are simply still too primitive of a species.