Mastodawn

Simon Willison Apr 29, 2025

I'm glad somebody out there is brave enough to push back against the "personal ChatGPT usage is terrible for the environment" message https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about

"If you want to prompt ChatGPT 40 times, you can just stop your shower 1 second early."

"If I choose not to take a flight to Europe, I save 3,500,000 ChatGPT searches. this is like stopping more than 7 people from searching ChatGPT for their entire lives."

Using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment - a cheat sheet

The numbers clearly show this is a pointless distraction for the climate movement

Andy Masley

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Simon Willison May 6, 2025

Here's a follow-up by someone with a whole lot more credibility than myself or Andy: Hannah Ritchie is "Head of Research at Our World in Data, and a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford" and runs a high quality sustainable energy blog https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-footprint-chatgpt

What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?

Very small compared to most of the other stuff you do.

Sustainability by numbers

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Jeff Triplett

@simon

> For the regular or even relatively high user of text-based LLMs: stop stressing about the energy and carbon footprint. It’s not a big deal, and restraining yourself from making 5 searches a day is not going to make a difference. In fact, it might have a net negative impact because you’re losing out on some of the benefits and efficiencies that come from these models.

👀 Noted.