MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Researchers Just Found Something Extremely Alarming About AI’s Powe

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Researchers Just Found Something Extremely Alarming About

Researchers have found that the carbon footprint of generative AI-based tools that can turn text prompts into images and videos is far worse than we previously thought.

As detailed in a new paper, researchers from the open-source AI platform Hugging Face found that the energy demands of text-to-video generators quadruple when the length of a generated video doubles — indicating that the power required for increasingly sophisticated generations doesn’t scale linearly.

For instance, a six-second AI video clip consumes four times as much energy as a three-second clip.

“These findings highlight both the structural inefficiency of current video diffusion pipelines and the urgent need for efficiency-oriented design,” the researchers concluded in their paper.

Experts are warning that we’re rolling out generative AI tools without a full grasp of their true environmental impacts.

“Ultimately, we found that the common understanding of AI’s energy consumption is full of holes,” MIT Technology Review wrote in a recent analysis.

While image generators used the equivalent of five seconds of microwave warming to generate a single 1,024 x 1,024 pixel image, video generators proved far more energy-intensive. To spit out a five-second clip, the researchers found that it takes the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour. If they’re consuming far more power as the length increases, the math doesn’t look good.

Those demands rise even faster for longer clips, implying “rapidly increasing hardware and environmental costs,” according to the Hugging Face researchers’ paper.

Fortunately, there are ways to slim down those demands, including intelligent caching, the reusing of existing AI generations, and “pruning,” meaning the sifting out of inefficient examples from training datasets.

But whether those efforts will be enough to make a dent in the enormous electricity consumption of current AI tools remains to be seen. The scale of its impact is substantial, with AI-related energy usage already representing 20 percent of global datacenter power demands, according to a recent study.

Meanwhile, tech giants are investing tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure buildouts, sometimes abandoning climate goals in the process. In its 2024 environmental impact report, Google admitted that it was woefully behind its ambitious plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, seeing a staggering 13 percent increase in carbon emissions year over year, in large part due to its embrace of generative AI.

Earlier this year, the company released its Veo 3 AI video generator, later boasting that users had created over 40 million videos in just seven weeks.

While the environmental impact of the tool remains unknown — Google isn’t exactly incentivized to investigate its sizable contributions to carbon emissions — chances are it’s far worse than we think.

More on AI energy usage: How Much Electricity It Actually Takes to Use AI May Surprise You

The post Researchers Just Found Something Extremely Alarming About AI’s Power Usage appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Amazon to pay $2.5B after FTC alleges deceptive Prime ta

The Federal Trade Commission has reached a record $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon.com, Inc., resolving claims that the company tricked millions of consumers into Prime subscriptions and then made it hard for them to cancel.

The deal includes a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in refunds for affected customers.

The FTC accused Amazon of designing “subscription traps” that misled consumers into signing up for Prime.

The agency said the company relied on confusing interfaces and obscure disclosures.

Millions of consumers unknowingly enrolled, while many others faced obstacles when trying to cancel.

FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said the outcome marked a turning point. “Today, the Trump-Vance FTC made history and secured a record-breaking, monumental win for the millions of Americans who are tired of deceptive subscriptions that feel impossible to cancel,” he said in an official statement.

Ferguson said evidence showed Amazon deliberately made cancellation difficult. “The evidence showed that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription,” he said. He added that the order would ensure Amazon “never does this again.”

Amazon did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

In a statement, the company said the deal lets it move on. “We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world,” the company said.

Refunds for millions of users

The settlement creates a $1.5 billion fund to reimburse Prime members. Around 35 million customers will qualify for payments.

Court filings show that those who enrolled between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, through certain offers and made little use of Prime benefits will automatically receive $51.

Others who tried and failed to cancel will be able to file claims.

Agency officials said the payout is the second-largest consumer restitution in FTC history.

They noted the case marks only the third time the FTC has secured a civil penalty under the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.

Former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who filed the case, criticized the outcome. She wrote on X that the $2.5 billion settlement was “a drop in the bucket for Amazon and, no doubt, a big relief for the executives who knowingly harmed their customers.”

Changes to Prime enrollment

Under the deal, Amazon must overhaul its Prime sign-up and cancellation flows.

The company will have to add a “clear and conspicuous” button allowing customers to decline Prime. It can no longer use phrasing such as “No, I don’t want Free Shipping.”

Amazon must also provide upfront disclosures on costs, renewal terms, and cancellation rules.

The agreement requires the company to make cancellation as simple as enrollment, using the same method. An independent supervisor will monitor compliance and oversee the refund process.

Despite the size of the penalties, analysts said the impact on Amazon’s finances will be limited.

The company generates roughly $2.5 billion in revenue every 33 hours.

Amazon reported $23.9 billion in subscription revenue in the first half of 2025, showing Prime remains a core driver of growth.

The FTC filed the order in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The Commission approved the deal by a 3-0 vote.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com