If there was an AI model that ran locally on a PC for basic things and cloud sourced computer power for more complex tasks, all of these data centers would become obsolete in an instant. All of the invested capital and materials wasted in a flash.
Edit: lots of great counter points in the comments.
To be fair, at least SETI-at-home is doing useful computing for the sake of Science, especially astronomy, as astronomy involves gazillions of twinkle-twinkling little points in the sky we often (and erroneously) call “stars” which we wonder what they are: they can be entire galaxies from a younger cosmos, mass-extinction-capable meteors zapping through the veil of spacetime continuum towards a certain Pale Blue Dot spinning somewhere in the Laniakea supercluster, or technologically-advanced extraterrestrials planning to colonize said Pale Blue Dot… the latter is where the SETI computations step in, you know, to try and solve the pesky Fermi Paradox.
!showerthoughts@lemmy.world