A single text query to Google’s AI model Gemini is equivalent to consuming around nine seconds of television. What sounds harmless at first glance adds up to billions of inquiries and raises serious questions about energy requirements, CO2 emissions and the burden on the power grid.
What does an AI query consume?
According to Google, the median consumption of a text query is 0.24 watt hours. As the German Press Agency reports, this corresponds roughly to the energy consumption of a television in nine seconds. In addition, there are 0.03 grams of CO2 and around 0.26 milliliters of water for cooling the data centers. However, these values only apply to average text requests. According to an analysis by ioplus.nl, more complex tasks such as image analyzes or longer word processing surprisingly require fewer resources than short messages such as just a “thank you”.
Efficiency gains and their limits
Google points to significant progress in the efficiency of its systems. Within a year, energy consumption per query fell 33-fold, while CO2 emissions were reduced 44-fold. This was made possible by optimized hardware, more efficient models and better utilization of data centers. Nevertheless, according to The Verge, critical voices are also being raised. Google uses a “market-based” approach that is based on emissions certificates and does not reflect actual site emissions.
Hidden costs of AI
The official figures do not cover all ecological factors. The Verge points out that water consumption in upstream power plants is hardly included in the balance sheet. In addition, the climate footprint depends crucially on the location of the data centers. Whether the electricity comes from renewable energy or fossil sources has a major impact on actual emissions. These differences are not visible in the published figures and this can result in a distorted picture.
When efficiency leads to more consumption
The Jevons paradox shows that increases in efficiency do not necessarily lead to lower resource consumption. Decreasing cost per query can help increase AI adoption. Tom’s Guide emphasizes that this development is likely to drive up overall consumption.
Editorial team finanzen.net
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