ChatGPT's water routine: 500ml every 20 prompts to stay sharp
When ChatGPT is used by people all over the world, the amount of water used is huge; up to 500 ml of water is used for every 20-50 prompts or questions people ask.
artificial intelligence
Highlights
- Water consumption associated with LLMs is indeed significant
- Data centres play a key role in generating electricity and cooling servers, both of which require significant amounts of water
- As the number of ChatGpt users decreases, the water usage also decreases
Shoolei Ren, a researcher at the California Polytechnic State University, has reported that ChatGPT, as well as other Large language models (LLMs), consume up to 500 ml (17 ounces) of water for every 20-50 prompts or questions asked by users.
Ren noted that this amount may not appear to be significant, however, when combined with ChatGPT usage by users around the world, the water consumption is substantial.
Microsoft has responded to an inquiry from AP News by stating that they are exploring methods to measure energy consumption and carbon footprint, as well as ways to reduce the energy consumption of LLMs.
ChatGPT ‘drinks’ a bottle of fresh water for every 20 to 50 questions we ask, study warns | Euronews https://t.co/DIxve69NT5
— matiere* (@matiere) April 20, 2023
Ongoing innovations
The tech world is always coming up with new ideas, so it's only natural that over time researchers and engineers will come up with more eco-friendly ways to use technology, which will help reduce the environmental footprint of LLMs.
For the majority of consumers, their first encounter with generative AI was through ChatGPT, which was launched in late 2022. ChatGPT has experienced a decrease in website traffic for the past three months.
Data centres and water
Data centres play an essential role in the production of electricity and the cooling of servers. Both of these processes consume a considerable amount of water.
Reducing the water consumption of data centers is part of a broader effort to reduce the environmental impact of AI technologies.
Declining user numbers and water usage
As the number of people using ChatGPT goes down, so does the amount of water used. This shows that AI systems can be scaled up or down depending on how much people want to use them and that they can be more resource efficient.
According to the scientists, Microsoft may have used up to 700,000 liters of water training just for GPT-3. The thought that more advanced models, such as GPT-4, could have used even more, but there's not much data available to get an exact figure.
The AI chatbot can be expected to consume approximately 500 ml of water during a conversation ranging from 20 to 50 questions.
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