When people think of ChatGPT, images of helpful AI answering questions, drafting essays might come to mind. It’s easy to get swept up in the convenience and fascination of talking to a machine that seems almost human. Having said that, behind the sleek interface and endless uses lies an environmental question that often goes unasked: what is the ecological cost of this technology?
According to Earth.org, ChatGPT produces around 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is a little more than double what an average person emits annually. Earth.org, a site dedicated to environmental journalism and research, points out that this number shows just how much energy these AI systems really use. While ChatGPT might seem like it lives somewhere in the “cloud,” the reality is that it runs on powerful computers inside massive data centers. Those servers use a huge amount of electricity, which leads to greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, every time we use AI tools like this one, there’s an environmental cost that isn’t immediately visible.
The second big issue Earth.org highlights is how much water AI systems use. A recent study from the University of California, Riverside found that Microsoft used about 700,000 liters of freshwater to train GPT-3. To put that in perspective, that’s the same amount of water needed to make around 370 BMWs or 320 Tesla cars (McLean, 2023). This water is used to cool the powerful machines that generate so much heat during training. What’s surprising is that even after the training is done, ChatGPT continues to use water during regular conversations, a process known as inference. For a chat of about 20 to 50 questions, the amount of water used is roughly the same as a 500ml bottle, which aligns with reports noting that data centers can burn through water at a surprisingly constant rate just to stay cool (The Teen Magazine, 2023). That might not sound like a ton, but when you multiply that by billions of users and interactions, it adds up to a massive total footprint.
Something I found especially interesting, and a bit strange, is a point McLean mentions about politeness. It turns out that saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT isn’t as harmless as it seems. Every word you type has to be read and processed by the system, and that requires both energy and water. When people all over the world use manners with the AI billions of times, that small act actually leads to a surprising amount of extra resource use. It’s wild to think that something as simple as being polite to a chatbot could have an environmental cost.
At the end of the day, tools like ChatGPT are changing how we learn, and communicate. But it’s also important to understand the hidden price of that progress. AI might make our lives easier, but it’s not as “clean” or cost-free as it appears on the surface. The more aware we are of its environmental impact, the better we can make choices about how and when we use it.
Resources
-The Environmental Impact of ChatGPT | Earth.Org
-ChatGPT Is Bad for the Environment: Here’s Exactly Why