ChatGPT's Harmful Effect on the Environment – The Spectator
Throughout the past few years, the utilization of the AI tool ChatGPT has significantly increased. Millions of individuals have leveraged it to respond to queries, draft detailed responses to prompts, and even create images. Despite its usefulness, ChatGPT contributes to severe environmental issues.
The Rise of ChatGPT
The innovative tool ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a company established back in 2015 with a mission to create an advanced AI chatbot. Their initial AI model, GPT-2, was introduced in 2018, followed by various updated versions. The company gained immense popularity after the public launch of a demo in December 2022, leading to a surge in AI interest. By February 2025, GPT-3 became the standard free version, while GPT-4, a more advanced model, required a subscription due to its enhanced functionalities.
Environmental Impact
Unlike traditional search engines like Google, ChatGPT operates by detecting language patterns. Trained on vast amounts of text from diverse sources, including books and articles, it processes and stores data to understand human writing styles. When prompted with a question, it analyzes the input and generates a response based on learned patterns. However, this process comes at an environmental cost.
Forbes reported that ChatGPT consumes over half a million kilowatts of energy daily. This significant energy consumption, though driven by innovation, poses environmental challenges. The energy expenditure equates to that of 180,000 US households. To put it into perspective, the energy utilized in a year by ChatGPT could power an entire county like Finland for a day.
The energy usage also results in 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Data centers play a vital role in ChatGPT's operation as they store crucial information and algorithms needed for data analysis. These centers consume a substantial amount of energy, contributing to a high carbon footprint. The environmental impact varies depending on the energy source—renewable or nonrenewable.
A study on ChatGPT-3 revealed that its training process consumed 700,000 liters of water. The heat generated during training necessitates cooling, which is facilitated by water usage.
Addressing the Issue
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide contribute to the greenhouse effect, leading to environmental consequences such as rising temperatures and habitat loss. OpenAI acknowledged the impact of ChatGPT on the environment and emphasized the need for efficient computing power usage to combat climate change.
Advocating for transparency in energy usage during AI development is crucial. OpenAI and other AI developers should fulfill their promises of eco-friendliness, given the increasing energy demands with the tool's popularity. Individuals can also play a role by promoting responsible usage of AI tools like ChatGPT to reduce energy consumption, thereby contributing to a greener future.
This article originally appeared on The Spectator, a student news site of Lake Forest Academy
