Church of JeffJul 25, 2025
#AI #GenerativeAI #OpenAI #ChatGPT #NoBillionaires #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #BrownOut #PowerGrid
Show threadErwin Rossen 🔸

@jeffowski Generating an image uses around 2.9 Wh. If you compare this to a 3kW AC, we can say that generating one image consumes as much energy as 3.5 seconds of AC usage.
👉 https://www.theverge.com/24066646/ai-electricity-energy-watts-generative-consumption

It is expected that in the next few years, our energy consumption will grow 3 times faster due to AC than due to data centers (which also includes other usages like streaming).
👉 https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/ai-energy-demand

So I agree with the cities: if you really care about the planet, focus more on AC than on AI!

Jul 26, 2025 at 8:19amWeb
Show threadErwin Rossen 🔸Jul 26, 2025
@jeffowski Everybody who complains about AI's energy usage from an AC'ed space either doesn't know how bad an AC is (good faith take), or doesn't really care about the climate in the first place (bad faith take). 🌍
Show threadVorsosJul 26, 2025

@erwinrossen @jeffowski AC helps people. Gen AI concentrates wealth.

These unnecessary AI data centers drain communities’ water and cook the planet. Raising my thermostat won’t change that. I’m all for more efficient energy use, just not for a technology that shouldn’t exist.

You are parroting billionaires’ propaganda but they won’t reward you for it.

Show threadErwin Rossen 🔸Jul 26, 2025

@Vorsos @jeffowski I show you the numbers that AC is many times worse than data centers, and you are still saying that AC is okay. Isn't it you who is parroting the fossil billionaires, that it's okay to burn up the entire planet?

There's plenty wrong with AI, but please, that's not a reason to stick your head in the sand for energy consumption in general, like for AC! Pointing to AI is just a whataboutism, a distraction from even worse polluters.

Don't side with Big Oil on this, please!

Show threadVorsosJul 26, 2025

@erwinrossen Some people in some climates cannot survive without AC. We can survive without Gen AI, fossil fuels, or any other big industry cooking Earth.

I am a shill for socialism, parroting the Big Human Survival lobby. Gen AI is antithetical to this, so while you defend it, we won’t see eye to eye on this.

Show threadErwin Rossen 🔸Jul 26, 2025
@Vorsos We are probably more aligned than you think. We're both against cooking the Earth, and in favor for human survival that's a great start. 😊
Show threadDavidJul 27, 2025

@erwinrossen @jeffowski
AI costs aren't just generation.

"Training a large language model like GPT-3, for example, is estimated to use just under 1,300 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity; about as much power as consumed annually by 130 US homes...
That means you’d have to watch 1,625,000 hours of Netflix to consume the same amount of power it takes to train GPT-3."

The more usage AI gets, the more value assigned to it and the more new models are trained.

Show threadDavidJul 27, 2025

@erwinrossen @jeffowski

> “You’re talking about AI electricity consumption potentially being half a percent of global electricity consumption by 2027,” de Vries tells The Verge. “I think that’s a pretty significant number.”

> A recent report by the International Energy Agency offered similar estimates,

(Those quotes are from your first article.)

Show threadErwin Rossen 🔸Jul 28, 2025

@idbrii @jeffowski It's fair to compare the training as well, but not too an unofficial using it of course. The second article I shared did look at the training energy usage.

Note that I'm not saying that AI doesn't use a lot of electricity. I'm saying that AC uses a lot more and you hear nobody about this.