Generative artificial intelligence has been a thing for some time now, and it has become especially controversial in the past two years. Artists have been crying out in dismay as it becomes harder for them to find jobs, and their copyrighted works are stolen from them to train new models, as described by the University of Southern California.
AI companies all around are failing to return a profit, as cited by Forbes. The cost to train these machines is astronomical. Despite this, these companies prop up the stock market, creating the infamous “AI bubble.”
One of the biggest things driving up the costs of AI is the need for General Processing Units (GPUs). The biggest seller of these GPUs is NVIDIA, and their stocks have been skyrocketing in value due to this. However, while stocks may be high, the quality of life for consumer technology is reaching incredible lows.
GPUs may be important for AI, but they are also crucial to gaming. They render images, textures, and other visuals for the gaming experience. The ravenous demand for GPUs from AI companies has resulted in hyperinflated prices, making a lot of people’s computer power stunted for the time being. On top of this, it is rumored that NVIDIA will be cutting the consumer 50-series production by 30-40%, as reported on by Tom’s Hardware.
It is also important to clarify that GPU prices will not just affect PC gamers. Those who play on consoles are also feeling the consequences of the recent GPU craze in Silicon Valley. Consoles and PCs both use similar technology, so price hikes on core parts are affecting both groups. Inconsistent tariffs on foreign-produced chips are also increasing volatility in this market, according to Tom’s Hardware.
Recently, NVIDIA announced its DLSS 5 model. DLSS uses AI to generate over low-quality frames, allowing for higher FPS at a good quality. However, this recent model throws away their reserved usage of AI. It effectively acts like an AI-generated filter over all games on which it is activated. It has generated a lot of controversy.
“Altering art with generative AI invites contamination from training data, warping the artist’s original intent. For Nvidia’s announcement, DLSS 5 imposed photorealism on everything, regardless of graphical style,” Forbes stated in an article discussing the controversy.
All in all, gamers are yet another group suffering from the rapid and inconsiderate integration of AI into every possible facet of the internet. While people going into entry-level jobs are facing the worst of AI’s unrestricted expansion, according to CNBC, they are not the only ones. Gamers are still an important and large group facing consequences.
