You’re probably hearing a lot of news about AI, from many people with many perspectives. For example, with its environmental impact, some people say it’s saving the world, others claim it’s ruining it. Obviously (or maybe not?) the truth is somewhere in between. And that applies to everything else AI-related, too. As a leader, you’re not expected to know everything, but you do have to manage how you learn about it, engage with your team, and leverage AI at work.

https://swiy.co/go-ai-hype-or-hope

Of course, there’s a lot of news – and noise – about AI, and that’s not going away. Some people say it will save the world, others say it will destroy it.

For example, when it comes to the environmental impact of AI, you will hear many dire warnings. But how much of it is true?

I did the maths!

Here are some rough figures about the climate impact of AI at an individual level.

Let’s look at three areas:

1. The of water needed to cool all the servers running AI

2. The electricity needed to run all these computers

3. the CO2 emissions to generate that energy

Water:

If you do ten average ChatGPT queries a day for a whole year, it uses as much water as it takes to make one hamburger.

Yep, that’s ONE hamburger!

Electricity:

If you do 25 ChatGPT queries a day, it uses as much electricity as it takes to heat up the water in one hot shower.

Carbon emissions:

And if you do ONE HUNDRED ChatGPT queries a day for a whole year, that creates about as many carbon emissions as taking one domestic flight in Australia.

OK, so these are average figures, but it gives you some idea of the scale of the climate impact of AI.

That doesn’t mean we should ignore the climate impact. But it’s all relative – especially for us rich Westerners (because, let’s face it, that’s who we are) when you compare it to many other activities in our daily lives.

I’m sharing this because it’s just one example of how some of the AI news is just not true. And this applies to everything – not just this one climate change example.

Nobody has time to check and double-check every “fact” like this, but for things that matter, don’t just assume what somebody says is true.

This is good advice in general, but especially when it comes to AI.

And this makes a difference.

Not just for you personally.

But for your professional role.

And your team.

And your organisation.

I’m running a free public online presentation soon about rethinking AI – and I’ll share some of the facts, changes, and misconceptions about AI – and what it means for you as a leader.

You can register here, and invite others in your team and your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-hype-or-hope

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