The world typed 365 billion prompts into ChatGPT last year alone. For perspective, Google needed more than a decade to hit that figure. Such scale sparks unease: are we pouring too much energy and water into a digital convenience?
History offers perspective. Vaccines once demanded vast R&D budgets but transformed public health. Synthetic fertilisers consumed energy on a colossal scale, yet they underpinned half the world’s food supply. The same logic applies to AI: the way we design and scale it will determine whether it becomes a climate burden—or a solution.
Concerns about energy are not misplaced.
