RAM is the central part of every electronic device. From your iPhone all the way to a car. Random access memory, or RAM for short, is why your computer loads websites very fast and doesn’t rely on your very slow storage. RAM is your short-term memory. Your storage in your computer is very slow, but holds a lot of data; RAM is very, very fast but holds very little data. What RAM does is quickly run the video you are watching until your storage kicks in. If you were to use storage as your RAM, it would take a day just for your Google search to go through. RAM has different types, from 8 GB to 64 GB. 8 is the minimum and 64 is the maximum, but 32 GB is the sweet spot. It did cost around $100.
Now you know how important RAM is. So now you might understand just why I became so angry when AI came along. AI needs lots of RAM because when you ask AI a question, it opens hundreds to thousands of websites very quickly to answer your question, and websites take up RAM. So AI datacenters need around 1.12 MILLION TERABYTES (which is 1.12 TRILLION GIGABYTES of RAM, 1T = 1000 GB). Basically, AI needs a lot of RAM. You would think we have plenty of RAM sitting around because everything needs RAM. And we did. But AI didn’t come around slowly. It suddenly became big. RAM companies didn’t expect AI to become so big because it takes YEARS for them to make more machines to make more RAM. And even if the companies knew AI was going to be big, they wouldn’t even have had time to make the machines. So AI just bought up all the INDUSTRIAL RAM. But then there was no more industrial RAM for AI and computer companies that also buy RAM, like Dell and HP. So in a quick desperation, they bought up all the consumer RAM that custom PC-makers use. In three days, RAM prices went up by almost 400%. AI needs a lot of storage for its data.
But making RAM expensive isn’t the only thing AI companies are doing wrong. When a company makes a new model, they overheat the system, so they need a lot of water. Data centers are normally by ponds or lakes, and they use up the water. There is a lake in Georgia that is dried up because of AI data centers using it to cool their component. So these AI centers are hurting the environment.
Now you know why AI is bad. But there is a way to solve it. If you ever need to get information, just Google it or watch a video. DO NOT USE AI. When you Google, turn off the AI overview. When you use AI, it harvests your data and sells it to different companies. If you just research in the old-fashioned way, you’re boycotting AI, so now AI isn’t making any money. I am mad because now it’s harder to make a budget PC. Making one was my dream, and I worked hard enough just to barely afford one. The price doubled, and now I have to wait until they get cheap again because the prices are too high. And that is why I hate AI: because of them making RAM expensive.
Patrick Finlay – Northridge Prep School – DMSF Class of 2030
Photo Credit: cliffsmith23 – Pixabay