Carbon taxes still allow you to waste as much energy as you want. It just makes it more expensive. The objective is to put a limit on how much they are allowed to waste.
I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know how to make a law without possible exploits, but i don’t think it would be hard for an actual lawyer to make a law with this spirit that is not easily avoided.
You can make the limit per-company instead. With big fines if you make thousands of companies to get around the law.
Energy consumption limit. Every AI product has a consumption limit of X GJ. After that, the server just shuts off.
The limit should be high enough to not discourage research that would make generative AI more energy efficient, but it should be low enough that commercial users would be paying a heavy price for their waste of energy usage.
Additionally, data usage consent for generative AI should be opt-in. Not opt-out.
I would still be programming. Just that it would be the projects I want to do, instead of the ones my employer wants to do.
Definitely the worst part of working is to give up 8+ hours of your day. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trip or staying in the chair looking at a computer. You still took away 8+ hours of my life.
In fact, when I signed up for the job, I did so wanting to be hours sitting in a chair looking at the computer. Not for “socializing” or whatever. I would prefer another day in the chair, since that trip will just give me less time to meet my deadlines.