What are the Carbon Costs of Asking an AI a Question? (msn.com)
- Reference: 0178131289
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/21/1844252/what-are-the-carbon-costs-of-asking-an-ai-a-question
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/chatgpt-isn-t-great-for-the-planet-here-s-how-to-use-ai-responsibly/ar-AA1H1jI5
"A Google search takes about 10 times less energy than a ChatGPT query, according to a 2024 analysis from Goldman Sachs — although that may change as Google makes AI responses a bigger part of search."
> For now, a determined user can avoid prompting Google's default AI-generated summaries by switching over to the "web" search tab, which is one of the options alongside images and news. Adding "-ai" to the end of a search query also seems to work. Other search engines, including DuckDuckGo, give you the option to turn off AI summaries....
>
> Using AI doesn't just mean going to a chatbot and typing in a question. You're also using AI every time an algorithm organizes your social media feed, recommends a song or filters your spam email... [T]here's not much you can do about it other than using the internet less. It's up to the companies that are integrating AI into every aspect of our digital lives to find ways to do it with less energy and damage to the planet.
More points from the article:
Two researchers tested the performance of 14 AI language models, and found larger models gave more accurate answers, "but used several times more energy than smaller models."
The data centers hosting AI models "can [2]devour more electricity than entire cities ."
"Keeping those computers cool uses freshwater — about [3]one bottle's worth for every 100 words of text ChatGPT generates."
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/chatgpt-isn-t-great-for-the-planet-here-s-how-to-use-ai-responsibly/ar-AA1H1jI5
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/07/ai-data-centers-power/
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/18/energy-ai-use-electricity-water-data-centers/
You're welcome. (Score:2)
Interestingly, I read somewhere that the human habit of being polite to these things has an energy impact too: They have to process the "please"s and "thank you"s of course!
Re: (Score:2)
Say please, but don't say thank you.
Reason: Questions with please have more often a helpful answer in the training data. So saying please can indeed improve the answer. Saying thanks afterward only generates a "You're welcome" message.
Who gives a damn? (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously. Can we please stop trying to quantify everything and anything in terms of environmental impact?
Re: (Score:1)
Why?
Re: Who gives a damn? (Score:2)
Because for some things it makes sense to do it but most it doesn't. It's over the top, needless and annoying.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you feeling shame for the environmental impact that your use of LLMs is having?
Well, maybe you should.
Re: (Score:2)
Enjoy your ever-inflating-price energy bill, even as you installed led bulbs, a water heater controlled by the CA government, and shower heads that give you 1 drip per minute.
The real concern, if it isn't environmental, is all the costs of increased capacity and infrastructure to get that power to that data center is being pushed on to residential customers. You should give a damn, even if it doesn't effect your wealthy butt.
Re: Who gives a damn? (Score:2)
Shower heads that diffuse water to save it are an illusion. It's basic chemistry. If you need X liters of water to wash away Y amount of soap but suddenly your shower head dishes out half water, half air, you'll simply end up running the tap for twice as long.
disagree (Score:2)
If you are asking questions that would require many site visits within search results as well as revised search terms. I've noticed ChatGPT is quite good at wading thru excessive irrelevance to come up with an answer that is relevant.
Better question: Cost in energy (Score:2)
Cost in energy != cost in carbon.
Some energy, such as solar, wind, and hydro, has a very low marginal cost beyond the cost of transmission. Sure, there's the cost of building the plant. Mining the earth to make solar panels, building those solar panels, getting them to the solar farm, and building a functional solar array and hooking it to the grid isn't energy-free.
Now, what's the equivalent cost of carbon? That depends on where the energy comes from. If, hypothetically, you use existing solar power to
Eviromental concern or fear of societal change? (Score:2)
Our technology and datacenter have always been used and have grown in their electricity use. High-power computing data centers exist for video, social media, gaming, and so on. I would argue that some of those are less valuable to us than AI. Even worse is crypto, which consumes enormous power to do what, encrypt transactions? That's a horrible return on energy, and getting less and less attention these days. What a waste when we could engineer more effective digital currencies or time banking.
I would say
Re: (Score:2)
I really should have had an AI proofread that for me... oh well.
Forget the cost (Score:2)
I can't afford to have incorrect or hallucinated answers masquerading as truth. Why use the damn thing if you have to verify everything it spits out at you? That's a truly costly waste of time right there.
Re: (Score:2)
> I can't afford to have incorrect or hallucinated answers masquerading as truth. Why use the damn thing if you have to verify everything it spits out at you? That's a truly costly waste of time right there.
If the time it takes to generate the content and verify that content is shorter than the time it would take to create the content yourself.
I take your point - It might be a waste of time in cases where the above is not true, but in my experience it has often been time saving.
No need to be worried (Score:2)
People read absolute numbers and are shocked. If they put the number about the energy use of their last Netflix evening next to it, they would be surprised. You'll probably saved more CO2 today by using an ad blocker than you can waste with (useful) ChatGPT queries in a day.
But read about it yourself: [1]https://andymasley.substack.co... [substack.com]
More links:
[2]https://old.reddit.com/r/aiwar... [reddit.com]
TL;DR:
Water (ChatGPT): [3]https://preview.redd.it/ld506s... [preview.redd.it]
Energy (Image generation): [4]https://preview.redd.it/bi31bq... [preview.redd.it]
Efficiency (LLM)
[1] https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/aiwars/comments/1fp3qz3/is_generative_ai_impact_on_the_environment_really/lov8ulm/
[3] https://preview.redd.it/ld506s3atzoe1.jpeg?width=2506&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ebce5c3ceecdd0f1251055d257fdf54cdd9ba52
[4] https://preview.redd.it/bi31bqxb3lhe1.jpeg?width=2580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=deb9b9260fd1df57d8c0402686893c4ff5c36f0c
Children. (Score:2)
My belief is that Children will treat AI like a spamming tool and denial of services attacks. Maybe some kind of social fishing. I find AI very interesting, and a step forward if used in an Ethical way, although I guess each inquiry costs about 10W, about the time that an LED light bulb is lit for an hour.
Re: Children. (Score:3)
I think you mean 10Wh
Re: (Score:3)
I find your assumption dubious just based on recent computing history. The masses of today did not find digital voice assistants, search engines, or other technology which has obvious privacy concerns to be any kind of problem. In fact, it's been the opposite where the technologies have become commonly accepted and the average user doesn't seem to care in the slightest what's done with their information. The technologies proved to be more convenient than worrisome and "AI" seems to be no different. Kids are