Slight Detour: May the Fourth and All That Stuff

I saw the following question on today's New York Times morning newsletter.

It's definitely one I would never have thought to ask because of no awareness of how the two activities could be related in any way.

Is eating meat as harmful for the environment as using ChatGPT or other A.I. tools? | Emily Osborn | Salt Lake City, Utah

Evan Gorelick, a reporter for The Morning, writes:

This is a little like comparing apples to oranges, so the numbers won’t be perfect. But let me try:

Asking a medium-length question on ChatGPT can use 20 to 30 watt-hours of energy, according to recent estimates. (That’s enough to toast a slice of bread!)

The carbon footprint depends where the data centers are and where their electricity comes from — though it’s mostly from fossil fuels, which emit lots of carbon.

Researchers estimate that a chatbot query can emit the equivalent of between seven and 15 grams of carbon dioxide. Call it 11 grams. So in 30 minutes, you might spew something like 110 grams.

Beef, the most carbon-intensive meat, emits the equivalent of around 6,040 grams of carbon dioxide per serving — a lot more than an A.I. prompt.

But prompting isn’t the only way A.I. affects the environment. There’s also the water it drains and the energy that goes into training new models.

OpenAI’s older model consumed about 50 gigawatt-hours during its training. (That’s enough to toast nearly two billion slices of bread!)

Newer and bigger models could consume significantly more. On a per-person level, the carbon output is still probably less than cow farming, but it’s rising quickly.

HMMMM!

Guess I'll pick and choose when to eat meat and how often to use AI from now on.

Right now, AI seems to be less expensive for me than meat.

And, below another item suggests that teachers are now doing their part to limit energy drain from AI and promote more human brain energy.

Seems like a good idea.

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Take-home writing assignments, once inescapable in your English and history classes, are on the way out.

It’s too easy for students to cheat with artificial intelligence.

Chatbots can generate polished essays in seconds — analyzing Supreme Court cases, parsing symbolism in “The Great Gatsby,” explaining the science behind the Artemis mission.

But teachers have a fix:

They’re making students write inside the classroom, where they can be observed. The assignments have changed too.

Some educators ask students to reflect on their personal reactions to what they’ve read — the type of writing A.I. struggles to produce.

Will Love, Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama and Debbie Love, this past weekend.

Willie and Debbie made a quick trip to Portland this weekend to observe a practice with the new WNBA team, the Portland Fire.

The team's coach Alex Sarama became their friend after he visited Sandpoint a few years ago to conduct a clinic with the Sandpoint and Lake City High girls baskeball teams.

Alex was named Portland Fire head coach after serving as assistant coach for the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers.

Willie recounts the weekend practice experience in his informative substack.

He picked up a lot of neat ideas about practices.

Click the link below.

Good luck to Alex and the Portland Fire.

https://coachingidaho.substack.com/p/practice-with-the-fire?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9bd84321-2db1-425d-8166-98396548cae0_1190x934.png&open=false

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

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The woman below is a hoot (look for the video of her cheering her horse on) as well as a talented racehorse trainer.

Her story and her historical achievement were definitely among the many bright spots of the weekend.

It was fun to see her graduate from exuberant and understandable insanity into a state of much-deserved ecstasy as she watched the horse she trained win the Kentucky Derby.

First woman ever to know that feeling.

This year's was an amazing Derby.

Speaking of horses: once again, yesterday, it was the student instructing his teacher.

Monty told me a long-forgotten (in my mind but not his) story during my lesson yesterday.

About 50 years ago, he was riding my sister's Appaloosa mare Sassy and getting red ribbons at a 4-H horse show.

Apparently, I pulled him aside and told him to ride the rail and stay out of the pack, assuring him that he'd do better.

"The next class I won a blue," he said.

It was a monumental moment for him and just another slice of advice in my mind. Lots of tidbits given go under the bridge and are forgotten when one is a teacher.

Such gestures, however, are momentous to young people trying to learn.

Well, the tables have turned.

I'm no longer Monty's 4-H leader or English teacher.

I am now HIS student.

Besides his knack for telling hilarious stories about his years of training and riding horses, Monty shares valuable information with spot-on timing as a riding instructor.

These days, it may not seem a big deal to him or my sister Laurie who has been helping with my regaining confidence on the back of a horse, but the nuggets issued and brief lessons about specific moves on my part while aboard CB are momentous to me.

Those two "coerced" me into loping CB again yesterday.

This time, knowing that last week's session where I loped a horse for the first time in 15 years did not result in death or painful leg muscles, I submitted rather quickly and without protest to the announcement: "now, you are going to lope."

I stayed on that horse through two loping sessions, and, yes, I look like a sack of potatoes with absolutely no finesse, but I stayed on and managed the controls without any disasters.

That is momentous for me, and once again my confidence increased.

It's fun when tables turn and the same respect given you as a teacher is exchanged when that student becomes your teacher.

Plus, I love my horse and especially love what he has learned, thanks to his "teachers" along the way.