Lesson 468 of 1570
AI Uses A Lot of Energy: Is That Okay?
Training and running AI uses real electricity and water. As a young person, you might care about this. Here is what is actually known.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1The big idea
- 2AI sustainability
- 3energy use
- 4personal choices
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
The big idea
AI training uses a lot of electricity. AI use (every chatbot reply) also uses some — much smaller, but it adds up. As a generation that will inherit climate change, you might want to factor this into your AI choices.
Real examples
- Training one big AI model can use as much electricity as hundreds of homes for a month.
- Each chatbot question uses a tiny bit of electricity — like sending an email.
- Generating an image uses more energy than a chat reply.
- Generating a video uses way more than an image.
Try it yourself
For one week, notice your AI use. Was each thing worth the energy? Are there habits you would change if you knew the cost?
Key terms in this lesson
End-of-lesson quiz
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