Interesting piece, Marcel. For me, energy consumption is only one issue with AI. If what you say about the energy consumption worries being overblown is true, then I'd love to see it used responsibly for beneficial purposes that did not steal intellectual property and undermine creative livelihoods.
But why are these figures so at odds with those that warn of the environmental impact? Is this just two sides of a propaganda war?
I think indeed individual consumption isn’t where “the problem” is with its 0.2kwh, but I also agree with the MIT article that combining the hype, low energy usage and commodity a ChatGPT request is becoming over a simple web search is just fuelling the energy hungry training of new models in the ratrace. No incentive for day to dat users to be conscious about their AI usage, reinforcing the “model factory” of OpenAI, Anthropic and the likes.
I am not sure I fully follow. I think it's good if people are energy conscious, but the focus on chatbot usage - unless you are a heavy image + video generator - is off. I'd much rather people think about their use of cars and heatings if they want to help save energy.
I also think the conflict of ChatGPT vs Google is definitely over, since a Google search is also generating an AI response.
Interesting piece, Marcel. For me, energy consumption is only one issue with AI. If what you say about the energy consumption worries being overblown is true, then I'd love to see it used responsibly for beneficial purposes that did not steal intellectual property and undermine creative livelihoods.
But why are these figures so at odds with those that warn of the environmental impact? Is this just two sides of a propaganda war?
Hi Marcel, I recently read this article from MIT https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
I think indeed individual consumption isn’t where “the problem” is with its 0.2kwh, but I also agree with the MIT article that combining the hype, low energy usage and commodity a ChatGPT request is becoming over a simple web search is just fuelling the energy hungry training of new models in the ratrace. No incentive for day to dat users to be conscious about their AI usage, reinforcing the “model factory” of OpenAI, Anthropic and the likes.
What do you think? Curious to know
Hi Thibault - careful, it is 0.2 Wh, not KWh ;-)
I am not sure I fully follow. I think it's good if people are energy conscious, but the focus on chatbot usage - unless you are a heavy image + video generator - is off. I'd much rather people think about their use of cars and heatings if they want to help save energy.
I also think the conflict of ChatGPT vs Google is definitely over, since a Google search is also generating an AI response.