To COP31: Your Prompts Are Packing Away an Electric Bill
Let's talk about AI Sustainability ahead of COP31. Smarter prompts. Smarter footprint.
OpenAI's Sam Altman claimed that the energy spent on ChatGPT prompts amounts to tens of millions of dollars annually. However, the actual energy consumption may be significantly lower. A Google study found that the median energy use for a prompt is 0.24 Wh, although this includes energy used by machines while idle and for cooling purposes.
OpenAI's own estimate is around 0.34 Wh per query, while Microsoft researchers measuring Frontier models got a median of 0.31 Wh. This energy consumption is comparable to running a small town. The environmental impact of AI prompts can be minimized by using shorter prompts and answers, employing smaller models suited for specific tasks, and avoiding unnecessary retries or long responses.
A study of office workers using AI assistants found that halving the number of prompts and answers could reduce energy consumption by 38 times.
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