Learning about AI comes at a cost. Georgia feels it, too.
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
THE MERCER CLUSTER — Georgia relies heavily on fossil fuels for electricity, meaning AI’s growth may be directly tied to rising greenhouse gas emissions. Every AI-generated answer, image or recommendation triggers layers of computation across multiple servers, drawing power long after we close our browsers. A task that takes seconds for us carries an environmental cost that lasts much longer.
To put this into perspective, researchers estimate that operating large language models like ChatGPT produces significant carbon emissions each year—potentially exceeding the annual footprint of an average individual. That is just one system. Multiply that footprint across countless AI models embedded in education, banking, health care and entertainment and the scale becomes impossible to ignore.
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