Of course there are comments doubting the accuracy, which by itself is valid, but they are merely doing it to defend AI. IMHO, even at a fifth of the estimates, we’re talking humongous amounts of power, all for a so-so search engine, half arsed chatbots and dubious nsfw images mostly. And let’s not forget: it may be inaccurate and estimates are TOO LOW. Now wouldn’t that be fun?
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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but they are merely doing it to defend AI.
No they're not, you can agree the research is garbage without defending AI. It literally assumes everything. GPT5 could be using eight times the power. It could be using half the power. It could be using a quadrillion times the power. Nobody knows, because they keep it secret.
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that's a lot. remember to add "-noai" to your google searches.
I'm just going to ignore the AI recommendations, let them burn money.
i don't judge you for that. honestly it matters fuck all at this point
This is my weekly time to tell lemmings about Kagi, the search engine that does not shove LLM in your face (but still lets you use it when you explicitly want it) and that you pay for with your money, not your data.
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That's alright. When they've got a generation of people who can't even hold a conversation without it, let alone do a job, that price increase will drop that energy use pretty rapidly.
Help me out here. What designates the “response” type? Someone asking it to make a picture? Write a 20 page paper? Code a small app?
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This bubble needs to pop, the sooner the better.
40Wh or 18Wh which is it?
That's my old gaming PC running a game for 2min42sec-6minutes ... Roughly.
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The team measured GPT-5’s power consumption by combining two key factors: how long the model took to respond to a given request, and the estimated average power draw of the hardware [they believe is] running it.
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It takes less energy to dry a full load of clothes
A standard dryer is more like 2-5kWh for a load.. Far more than 40Wh.
Maybe you're mixing Wh with kWh. 40Wh is not that much, but it's still a lot for a single request.
Roughly the capacity of a laptop battery, a huge amount of energy per request.
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That are 25 request per kWh. At 10 to 25cents per kWh that's 1cent per request. That doesn't seem to be too expensive.
Hmmm. Sure. But I find people don't understand how much one kWh really is. A 500W drill can twist your arm. Imagine yourself twisting someones arm with all you got for a whole hour. Or idk. Either way it's a lot of energy.
And then you think about how much more energy a car uses then a human does. And then you find out about hot water...
Which is why they're giving everybody free access, for now.