UK public oblivious to AI energy use – IET report
Research from the IET has found that the vast majority of the public is unaware of the energy intensity of AI models such as ChatGPT.
The study, commissioned ahead of ChatGPT’s second birthday, revealed that just 16 per cent of the public was aware of the environmental impacts of the large language models (LLMs) that power much of today’s AI.
It’s been estimated that a single ChatGPT query consumes between 10 and 30 times the energy of a traditional internet search. Despite this, many people are using LLMs to answer basic questions such as ‘what is one plus one’, ‘what day is it’, and ‘what is the weather’. According to the IET, rudimentary online search should be used for these basic questions, with AI tools better suited to more complex tasks such as helping people write emails and documents.
“We’ve seen a colossal uptake of AI tools in the past two years, and while LLMs can provide great support to users, there is significant cost and environmental impact, which is only going to increase as the adoption of AI rises to drive efficiency and productivity,” said Professor Peter Bannister, chair of the IET’s Sustainability and Net Zero Policy Centre.
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