[1] There is no definite answer, energy consumption is not intrinsically bad ... but we should try and be mindful of our use of the technology. I run my LLMs at home on 100% green energy so I'm an outlier. That being said Apple had no choice when implementing the technology, and the OAI partnership was strategically inevitable. Everything will depend on the location for the new datacenters, see Microsoft's strategy. But in general the push towards smaller but more performant models is interesting.
[2] Hard to argue against the physical reality of increased energy expenditure for marginal useability gains, again the strategic gains from the program outweigh the damage to the ESG initiative. And one could make the argument that keeping a dominant market share will reduce the global market footprint by reducing the production of less ethical agents.
[3] There is no causal relation between the two initiatives. One can strive towards reduced footprint, but they still are a publicly traded company. Self-policing will never supplant regulation.
PS: There seems to be an overwhelming sense of negativity towards the tech, from your bio you seem to be in the creative arts ... The increased market pressure and price dumping felt from your hobby/occupation seem to prime you for this kind of reaction. And I won't refute the fact that the foundation of this technology is based on the biggest IP theft of human history.
Still, when you look at advanced science within those fields, there are very real and interesting applications ... don't let the consumer facing industry's push towards cramming an OAI socket into all your applications to up-sell a subscription or implement more surveillance detract from that. The tech will crash and mature, we are currently reaching peak bubble.
