The Energy Changemakers newsletter provides an interesting article on how to save energy through less politeness. To find out more, please click on the link.
Rudeness as an energy efficiency measure
Behavioral energy efficiency — getting people to change the way they act to save energy — is not a new concept. But AI and data centers are taking it to a whole new level.
It turns out saying,“Thank you” on the Internet is an energy hog, especially if you’re saying it to ChatGPT.
This comes from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Saying “Please” and “Thank you” to AI creates electricity bills for his company in the “tens of millions of dollars,” according to a Techverx post on LinkedIn.
Such politeness also wastes a lot of water. “You are welcome” can drink up 40–50 milliliters of water in cooling.
Given how much data centers are driving new demand for resources, the question becomes: Do we need to start looking at Internet use through an energy efficiency lens?
External link
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 