Solarpunk

I simply want to know if machines like this can exist in Solarpunk with it remaining Solarpunk, and if people like the idea or not.

As someone who went into robotics and AI 20 years ago because I strongly believe they make a whole new range of utopias possible, I'll of course answer YES! Of course! And there are not enough fictions like that. Most sci-fi is dystopian and 90% of solarpunk dreams of a low tech future where everyone is a farmer which, to me, is another dystopia.

People here already mentioned Banks' Culture series, that's the only example of such things. I wish we had more, and if you ever need technical help on the AI design side, I'll be happy to answer questions.

Even though this is not my personal opinion, you are in good company by using the definitions you use for AI and AGI. Technically you are talking about language models and multimodal models. It remains to be seen if multimodality is required for general intelligence but that's certainly a plausible hypothesis for a sci-fi setting.

We are in dire lack of high-tech solarpunk around here, more power to you!

For a Solarpunk story it is a very weak plot element as it basically just handwavy says the AI is solving all the hard problems. This is both unrealistic and also more akin to transhumanist narratives that claim that some imaginary and not yet invented technology will solve all of humanities problems.

Check out Ian M. Banks The Culture series. AI and humans do-exist, AI are also super nice and provide stuff for us because we’re basically the equivalent of puppies compared to their level of superiority.

Oh and each of the AI that are ships have names like “Funny, It Worked Last Time...”, “A Series Of Unlikely Explanations”, or “Very Little Gravitas Indeed”.

But in my opinion yes, but we have to co-exist making democratic decisions together. SolarPunk is anarchy, so you can’t just have a machine overlord lording over people.

I'm not really sure, or, well, at least AI in what people tend to associate with nowadays. I think a solarpunk future is a future where degrowth is a main ethos for the development of the society. AI, as it currently exists, relies on global scale exploitation of not just artists, writers, but also people in the Global South living in abject conditions and are forced to accept mentally and physically damaging jobs to help "AI" to exist in the first place. Using AI, as far as I know, also comes with huge environmental costs simply because of how energy intensive it is to run and train its huge dataset. So the existence of stuffs like ChatGPT or Midjourney is a no go, unless "human ingenuity" could do something like being so cost effective energy wise that technology like that would require way less energy to run, or somehow the colonization of the universe would happen, but for the latter to happen will neccesarily require the kind of economy that centers growth above all else like capitalism.

Imo, Solarpunk technology should be local and open source and easily understandable for communities and individual to use, the factor of being environmentally friendly is also very significant and I don't think AI infrustructure would guarantee to fullfill those requirements.

That's the reason I would never understand the obsession with nuclear power or AI techinology of some solarpunk enthusiasts. These are all infrastrcutures that requires a degree of centralization of human and resouces, which drastically constrasts what solarpunk should be about. A solarpunk future is not fully automated luxury communism, but a low tech communism that still guarantees the well being of all. Low tech does not exist simply because of accessiblity, but also the capital E Environment.

Furthermore, the basic issue of human creativity being ripped off is also a thing that should be addressed. I don't belive in intellectual property, but we shouldn't need IP to protect arists from exploitation without consents. A solarpunk world is a world that respect human autonomy, so if an artist do not consent for their works to be used in training AI, their wish will be respectfully followed through. As an artist in art communities, I don't think that many people are fond of submitting their works to an AI so that others could code a drawing, so the dataset required for AI would not be enough, thus render AI useless. That's just creatives though, maybe scientists and researchers would hold different views? If that's the case, circle back to the question of energy intensity inherent in AI technology.

That's just AI in a very specific sense though, I don't know what constitute an AI. If AIs are just machines that can beat human at chess, or to predict patterns of local weather, or regulate irrugation system for farming, or organize documents, then sure, there's no reason why it should not exist in a solarpunk future. But the existence of such machinery should be put under scrutiny. If an AI could not be operated without significant environment impact, it has to go. Impressive techonology is not just codes, it's also very real, very material hardware that possess impressive processing power, and with it, impressive amount of energy, resources, and human power.

To address your AI specificly: I think your AI is HUGE, and I'm not confident about its place in a solarpunk world. Your AI would exist in some versions of communism, but solarpunk? I don"t think so.

I simply want to know if machines like this can exist in Solarpunk with it remaining Solarpunk

I think this question is a great prompt for an actual Solarpunk story.

Forget AGI, even creating 'AI' seems to require human exploitation on a global scale. All current Large Language Models' (LLM) existence relies on denying intellectual 'property' norms and erasing the authorship of millions of small human authors, artists, and creators, while those same norms are enforced brutally against them in the interest of rich creators and corporations.

I know anarchists take many stances on the use of LLM technology, but I don't think anyone denies these technologies are powerful and world-changing. Like not driving a car or living a strictly vegan lifestyle, some anarchists have measured the harm with the benefit, and decided to accept that boycotting LLM technology is an ethical stance they can't individually afford.

But what would an anti-capitalist 'AI' look like? Is it possible to build an alternative to the LAION Dataset that respects the human authorship upon which it depends? How would such a system survive against its capitalist competitors? How would tools built on the dataset differ from the ones currently available? How would abuse of the system be prevented or mitigated? How would the world react to an anarchist LLM?

I think answering these questions could be the basis of a solarpunk version of the cypherpunk Cryptonomicon. It would be the kind of well-written story I would like to read.

If we can get low powered machines (seems like analog computers built for the specific task are a decent bet, among things like AI RAM modules) running it on an independent solar grid isn't infeasible. Our immediately available technology doesn't have this but it can exist with just a little growth.

For real world inspiration of the technology check out Vertisatium's video on Mythical AI doing recognition in real time on analog chips, along with Intel's announcements on their AI RAM modules. Should give you some good framework.