From what I understand the Google NN in the study were being used for enormous language models. One proper training cost a million dollars in electricity.
But how often was that done? Probably not everyday. Maybe once a month? To me it sounds worthwhile in terms of research. It's a project involving hundreds or thousands of people, and the results are shared.
In the end most human activity uses resources, and there is a lot of waste in there. How many jetloads of people fly across the country each year to party at Miami beach? It's many thousands I am sure.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
