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‘Thirsty’ ChatGPT uses four times more water than previously thought (www.thetimes.com)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Writing a 100-word email using ChatGPT (GPT-4, latest model) consumes 1 x 500ml bottle of water It uses 140Wh of energy, enough for 7 full charges of an iPhone Pro Max

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

It's true, I don't know how large the models are that are being accessed in data centers. Although if the article's estimate is correct, it's sad that such excessively-demanding models are always being used for use-cases that could often be handled with much lower power usage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

This seems a big waste of energy if that 140Wh (504,000 joules) number is correct. That amount of energy is about 2,000 times what it would take to do a very similar thing on a home PC.

Writing a 100 word email with a 7B model would take my PC about 5 seconds, times an increased power use of 50 watts, so 250 joules.

I get that they might be using a much larger model, but the e-mail is not going to be 2,000 times better.