iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm contributing the bird detections to a citizen science project called BirdWeather, a massively collaborative project to collect valuable bird species data for use in conservation and to better understand bird behaviour. #raspberrypi #citizenscience #birdnet 5/6

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AI is attracting a lot of negative press at the moment, but there are many efficient, safe, and truly beneficial uses of it that are worlds-apart from running huge LLMs in power-hungry data centres. #raspberrypi #citizenscience #birdnet 4/6

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There are some fascinating insights, like the dawn chorus tracking sunrise so closely, that robins are the early risers (although they feel sorry for themselves while moulting in summer and don't sing as much), and that owls seem to prefer darker nights. #raspberrypi #citizenscience #birdnet 3/6

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The model is from @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social, and is able to identify more than 6,000 species of birds and other animals. These screenshots are from a web page I put together with some analysis of the data that I've collected so far. #raspberrypi #citizenscience #birdnet 2/6

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Over the summer, I set up a Raspberry Pi 5 with BirdNET-Go. It listens to the audio from a connected microphone, then runs it through an AI model running locally on the Raspberry Pi (no data centres involved!) trained to detect bird calls. #raspberrypi #citizenscience #birdnet 1/6

120

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

☀️ Picked up the solar eclipse nicely on my @pimoroni.com / @raspberrypi.com Enviro+ weather station's light sensor! #solareclipse #eclipse #raspberrypi #pimoroni

1161

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I get deeply frustrated at people conflating AI with only LLMs like ChatGPT and tEH DaTA CeNTErs, when AI is a whole lot more than just that, and with some genuinely amazing uses. 🧵 4/4 Link to BirdNET-GO: github.com/tphakala/bir... #birdweather #birdnet #birdnetgo #citizenscience #raspberrypi #ai

010

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

It lets you contribute the data to a fantastic site called BirdWeather, which is a map with all of the other BirdNET stations contributing their data also, and allowing researchers to use the data from scientific studies. 🧵 3/4 #birdweather #birdnet #birdnetgo #citizenscience #raspberrypi #ai

Screenshot of my BirdNET site's data in York, with the top species identified in the past 24 hours.

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

It uses TensorFlow Lite models running on the Raspberry Pi to identify birds by their calls. No data centres involved, and on a device that uses about as much energy as a modern LED lightbulb. You can even see the spectra of the bird calls. 🧵 2/4 #birdnet #birdnetgo #citizenscience #raspberrypi #ai

Audio spectrum of a crow's call from BirdNET-Go.

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

This weekend I've set a Raspberry Pi up with the fantastic BirdNET-Go software. It uses a microphone (in this case, the audio stream from a CCTV camera) to listen for, and identify, nearby birds by their calls, using local AI models. 🧵 1/4 #birdnet #birdnetgo #citizenscience #raspberrypi #ai

Screenshot of the BirdNET-Go dashboard, with counts of species identified during the day. Lots of wood pigeons and crows identified, along with a few smaller birds like dunnocks and blue tits.

Summary of birds identified, with 689 total detections, 18 unique species, and bar plots of the top ten species and the detections by time of day — dawn has by far the most.

110

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Given the state of @github.com, I've moved all of my active code development (apart from a handful of repos that require specific actions for now) to #Codeberg codeberg.org/sandyjmacdon...

media.tenor.com

a man is carrying a bag in front of a garbage can that says 04 60573

ALT: a man is carrying a bag in front of a garbage can that says 04 60573

000

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Just deleted my #ChatGPT and #OpenAI accounts, and I’d encourage you to do the same. #DeleteChatGPT

010

Reposted by Sandy Macdonald

Martin Kleppmann @martin.kleppmann.com · 06/05/2025

Stop stressing about the energy and carbon footprint of ChatGPT. It’s not a big deal www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-foo...

sustainabilitybynumbers.com

What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?

Very small compared to most of the other stuff you do.

2322229

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

You can find the data I used (collected May 2025) and references here: tinyurl.com/4kp4z7su Feel free to use these infographics however you like ! #ChatGPT #AI 6/6

Image saying "Data here will vary based on many factors, but should give a rough idea of the carbon footprints of common activities. Data and references are available at the URL and QR code below: https://tinyurl.com/4kp4z7su "

000

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

This is aimed at being purely factual, and based on the best evidence I could find, and does not tackle any of the other emotive issues around data used to train models, the safety and ethics of AI, etc. #ChatGPT #AI 5/6

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

If you drive an unleaded petrol car, then the emissions are two orders of magnitude higher than the CO2 equaivalent of typical daily ChatGPT use. #ChatGPT #AI 4/6

Image saying "A typical car owner creates 3,819g of CO2 emissions each day. That's over 100x the emissions of an average ChatGPT user!"

Bar graph showing daily CO2 emissions of an average unleaded petrol car compared with typical daily ChatGPT use.

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Even making one cup of coffee (most people have 3 cups of tea or coffee a day) uses the equivalent of 4.9 ChatGPT queries in CO2 emissions. #ChatGPT #AI 3/6

Image saying "Making one cup of coffee creates the equivalent in CO2 emissions as 4.9 ChatGPT queries. Most people have three cups a day!"

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Services that include streaming media like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, are especially bad for carbon emissions. Typical users spend ~30 to 45 minutes using each of them daily, and up to 4x the equivalent in CO2 emissions compared to avg. ChatGPT use. #ChatGPT #AI 2/6

Image saying "On average, people watch 46 minutes of TikTok per day. That's 3.8x the CO2 emissions of an average ChatGPT user."

Image saying "A typical YouTube user watches 49 minutes a day. Compared to an average ChatGPT user that's 4.1x more CO2 emissions."

Image saying "Browsing Instagram for just 1.5 minutes is the equivalent to one ChatGPT query. A typical Instagram user browses for 21.6x that each day."

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Borne out of frustration at seeing so many posts about how bad ChatGPT was for the environment with little to no data to back it up, or rational comparisons to other common activities, I made some infographics. #ChatGPT #AI 1/6

Bar graph showing ChatGPT carbon emissions (35.2g daily) compared to other activities like YouTube (143.2g daily) and TikTok (133.8g daily).

Image saying "The average ChatGPT user makes about 8.2 queries per day. That's 35.2g of CO2 emissions."

100

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Me walking out the amusement arcade after spending £500 on the claw machines.

010

Sandy Macdonald @sandyjmacdonald.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

I’ve recently switched over to UniFi gear. I have the UCG Ultra, U6+, and a couple of little switches. Loving it so far.

100