Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · Aug 6

As tech firms keep adding the largest and most compute-intensive AI models into more and more aspects of our digital lives, they are increasingly dependent on a growing share of existing energy and natural resources, leading to rising costs for everyone else, write Sasha Luccioni and Yacine Jernite.

How Your Utility Bills Are Subsidizing Power-Hungry AI | TechPolicy.Press

The next few years will be pivotal for determining the future of AI and its impact on energy grids worldwide, write Sasha Luccioni and Yacine Jernite.

www.techpolicy.press

1 17 35

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Aug 8

If you're in New York and want to apply to attend, you can fill out the form on the event page! countdown.ted.com/ai-for-clima...

AI for Climate and Nature | TED Countdown

The Bezos Earth Fund and TED Countdown invite you to explore transformative ideas that address climate change and nature loss through the use of AI.

countdown.ted.com

2

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Aug 8

Well folks, the butterfly's out of the bag -- I'm doing another TED talk! 🦋 🎤

Catch me during NYC Climate Week on September 24th for an evening of talks hosted by TED Countdown -- I will be talking about all things AI and sustainability 🌍
countdown.ted.com/ai-for-clima...

1 10

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Aug 6

Thank you @brigittetousi.hf.co for the editorial support and @justinhendrix.bsky.social and @techpolicypress.bsky.social for providing us with a platform 💚

3

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Aug 6

Think AI's rising energy demands aren't your problem? Think again! ⚡

In our commentary, @yjernite.bsky.social and I explain how AI & data center expansion is making energy bills rise in the US, what the mechanisms driving this are, and why it matters.

www.techpolicy.press/how-your-uti...

How Your Utility Bills Are Subsidizing Power-Hungry AI | TechPolicy.Press

The next few years will be pivotal for determining the future of AI and its impact on energy grids worldwide, write Sasha Luccioni and Yacine Jernite.

www.techpolicy.press

2 13 27

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jul 29

𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁! 🚀
If you've been looking for a lightweight, open-source package to use for tracking metrics, parameters, and hyperparameters, look no further! 👩‍💻
Trackio is local-first, free and open-source, and comes integrated with 🤗 Datasets and Spaces 📈
huggingface.co/blog/trackio

Introducing Trackio: A Lightweight Experiment Tracking Library from Hugging Face

We’re on a journey to advance and democratize artificial intelligence through open source and open science.

huggingface.co

2 7 26

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jul 18

I am so grateful that this paper is out!

It so eloquently describes so many of the issues I've seen with a lot of AGI experimentation that concludes that LLMs are scheming, ill-intentioned, or malicious, and the chimp language metaphor is the cherry on the cake 🍰

arxiv.org/abs/2507.03409

Lessons from a Chimp: AI "Scheming" and the Quest for Ape Language

We examine recent research that asks whether current AI systems may be developing a capacity for "scheming" (covertly and strategically pursuing misaligned goals). We compare current research practice...

arxiv.org

5 24

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jul 17

Friends!
Does anyone know of any model distillation with public logs (W&B or other)?
I'm trying to figure out the energy tradeoffs between model training and distillation..

5 7

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · Jul 9

. @sashamtl.bsky.social takes centre stage at the AI for Good Summit, hitting hard with the urgent and critical issues of Co2 emissions, energy demands, and cooling water needs demands of AI, stressing the planet

13 53

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jul 8

I was so tempted to take a Sharpie to this monstrosity 😇

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · Jul 8

on display at the AI for Good Summit in the main hall

Tesla cybertruck on display at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva

1 1 17

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jul 8

Sometimes it's hard to find allies in a big room full of people talking about AI.. thankfully @abeba.bsky.social is always there to kick ass and call for accountability 🦋

2 3 78

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

Business and Sports Events Montréal @meetmontreal.bsky.social · Jul 8

Thinking about Montréal? 😍

Montréal International and the Ville de Montréal have unveiled a new video to attract U.S.-based researchers and scientists!

Featuring:

✔️ @sashamtl.bsky.social
✔️ @weisslab.bsky.social
✔️ Dr Rachel Bouserhal

#montreal #research #scientists

2 1 7

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jul 8

I've always felt that Montréal is a safe space for research -- it’s a city that values science, collaboration, and diversity, and I’m proud to call it home 🏠

Like I said in the video: Montréal is home—and all are welcome.💖🦋

youtu.be/dWiL4b7-KEA

R&D in Montréal | Montréal Loves Researchers | Harness the Power of your Research in Canada

YouTube video by Montréal International

youtu.be

1 4 18

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · Jun 25

Tomorrow @facct.bsky.social , 9:36am (☕️☕️☕️), @sashamtl.bsky.social and I on stage questioning the bigger-is-better narrative in AI.

Come for the 🌶, stay for the evidence and critical thinking (hopefully)

1 2 10

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Jun 20

New @sashamtl.bsky.social et al paper - assessing whether machine learning model developers disclose basic environmental / energy information with their models. They mostly do not!!

Grim results for most of the big companies:

arxiv.org/abs/2506.15572

huggingface.co/spaces/sasha...

a chart showing most models are red - ie, no disclosure - for alphabet, microsoft, openai, anthropic

1 7 24

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 20

We also made an interactive demo that you can use to explore our data by model and by org (and see which labs and companies are doing a better job than others!): huggingface.co/spaces/sasha...

Check it out and leave your comments below! 🦋

Environmental Transparency - a Hugging Face Space by sasha

Discover how AI organizations disclose their environmental impact by year and transparency type. Select an organization to see their data visualized.

huggingface.co

1 2 7

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 20

In it, we discuss how transparency around the environmental impacts of AI has been declining over the years, resulting in a total lack of disclosure about the most popular models that we use now, precluding us from making informed choices. 💻

1 1 4

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 20

Does a ChatGPT query really use ten times more energy than a Google search? Does training any AI model emit as much CO2 as 5 cars? and can AI help us reduce global GHG emissions by 10%? 🤔

We tracked down the origins of these numbers 🕵‍♀️ and wrote a paper about it!

arxiv.org/abs/2506.15572

3 17 48

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

molly taft @mollytaft.com · Jun 20

how much energy does your ChatGPT search really use? i wrote about the trials and tribulations of putting a number on AI emissions, & how some of the most powerful companies in the world could clear it up for us — but they're staying silent. feat a peek at new research from @sashamtl.bsky.social !

How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t Saying

A growing body of research attempts to put a number on energy use and AI—even as the companies behind the most popular models keep their carbon emissions a secret.

www.wired.com

9 86 240

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 19

One of the biggest frustrations I have is the lack of transparency around AI's energy use and environmental impacts. I know the numbers are out there... but somehow we're not seeing them 🫠

Thank you @wired.com for covering this topic in such depth and detail !

www.wired.com/story/ai-car...

How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t Saying

A growing body of research attempts to put a number on energy use and AI—even as the companies behind the most popular models keep their carbon emissions a secret.

www.wired.com

1 28 58

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 18

I had someone tell me "I didn't know there was more to AI than LLMs" today and I swear I died a little inside 🥺

1 15

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 16

Your Honor, please let the record reflect that I had a massive crush on Pedro Pascal way before everyone else did ... over 2 years ago.
Check out the evergreen Space I made to find your inner Pedro here! huggingface.co/spaces/sasha...

4

Reposted by Dr Sasha Luccioni

Travis LaCroix @travislacroix.bsky.social · Jun 15

I didn't announce this when it happened, but my article, "Metaethical perspectives for 'Benchmarking' AI ethics", with @sashamtl.bsky.social, was published back in March in the AI and Ethics journal.

doi.org/10.1007/s436...

Metaethical perspectives on ‘benchmarking’ AI ethics - AI and Ethics

Benchmarks are seen as the cornerstone for measuring technical progress in artificial intelligence (AI) research and have been developed for a variety of tasks ranging from question answering to emoti...

doi.org

1 1 5

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 13

Never thought I'd see my name in a museum exhibit! 🥹
A quote from my TED talk is featured in an exhibit on AI at the Exploratorium in San Francisco -- go check it out if you're in town!

2 25

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 13

This varies depending on the size of the model as well, with bigger models generating more verbose answers than the smaller ones.

... So the cost of politeness does add up! 💡

Check out our blog post here:

huggingface.co/blog/jdelava...

Saying Thank You to a LLM Isn't Free — Measuring the Energy Cost of Politeness

A Blog post by Julien Delavande on Hugging Face

huggingface.co

1 4 12