Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently joked that all those “please” and “thank you”s to ChatGPT are adding up to millions of dollars in energy costs. But behind the humor is a real climate challenge:

💡 One ChatGPT query uses as much energy as running a light bulb for 20 minutes.
📱 Generating a single AI image = fully charging your smartphone or driving four miles in a gas-powered car.
🏭 Data centers and the ICT sector already consume as much electricity as the entire airline industry—contributing 2-3% of global emissions.
⚡ By 2026, data centers are projected to use 4% of the world’s electricity—equivalent to all of Japan’s consumption.

😂 In a recent TechRadar survey, 12% of people in the US and UK said they’re polite to AI because they don’t want to be first when the robot uprising happens!

🌱 As AI becomes part of our daily lives, its invisible energy footprint is growing fast. The choices we make as users and as an industry will shape AI’s climate impact.