Generative AI’s environmental impact in figures

The surge in generative artificial intelligence (AI) is being met with growing fears about the technology’s ecological footprint, one of the top questions up for discussion at a global summit in Paris on February 10-11.Here are some key figures on the state of play in early 2025:

Ten times Google’s power

Every request made to OpenAI‘s chatbot, which is able to generate all kinds of responses to natural-language queries, consumes 2.9 watt-hours of electricity.

That is ten times more than the equivalent figure for a Google search, according to the…