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Deep Thoughts by Lane Freeman

Deep Thoughts by Lane Freeman: a man sitting on a beach, looking out at the sunset over the ocean.
A vase of red roses, a small model biplane, and a brass genie lamp releasing a wisp of smoke shaped like a genie, arranged on a wooden table.
Article

The Flowers, the Flying Machine, and the Genie

What ordinary things can teach us about artificial intelligence in the classroom

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Try out the AI Transparency Booster in this website. Below is one part that it provided me after writing the above article.

3. Overall AI usage summary

You supplied the original ideas, the argumentative direction, the voice specification, and every substantive revision decision; the AI functioned as a drafting partner, research verifier (the 1903 New York Times editorial, the specification-gaming attribution), formatting engine, and editorial sounding board. The AI produced most of the prose in the finished document, but did so against analogies, a thesis, and a set of constraints that originated with you, and you rejected, redirected, or corrected the output at every stage. Rating: Substantial.

Article

Why Fearing AI’s Energy Cost is a Myopic View of Our Future

As artificial intelligence accelerates, a growing number of educators and citizens are pushing back against its adoption, citing the technology’s massive energy consumption as morally indefensible. This editorial challenges that view, arguing that measuring AI solely by its current carbon footprint is a dangerous myopia that ignores its potential to solve the very environmental crises we fear. By examining AI’s critical role in unlocking fusion energy, revolutionizing battery storage, and accelerating life-saving medical breakthroughs, this piece reframes the “energy cost” as a necessary investment in human survival.

It further explores the geopolitical risks of “opting out” and highlights emerging solutions—such as orbital data centers—that promise to decouple high-performance compute from terrestrial resources. Ultimately, this article posits that the true moral failure lies not in using AI, but in refusing to steward its potential for the greater good.

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The Digital Energy Exchange: daily habits vs. AI productivity. Approximate energy use of common digital activities and the equivalent number of AI prompts: watching Netflix in HD for 1 hour, about 100 Wh or roughly 330 prompts; scrolling social media for 1 hour, 100 to 120 Wh or roughly 350 to 400 prompts; a 1-hour video call, about 200 Wh or roughly 670 prompts; fully charging a smartphone, about 18 Wh or roughly 60 prompts; a 1-hour cloud gaming session, about 500 Wh or roughly 1,670 prompts.
This visual breaks down the “Digital Energy Budget” to provide context for AI’s environmental footprint. By comparing the energy consumption of common daily activities—like streaming movies or video chatting—to the equivalent number of standard AI queries, it illustrates that our routine digital habits often expend far more energy than using AI for productivity and problem-solving.