In 2025, it became abundantly apparent that the energy demand of artificial intelligence was reaching staggering proportions and was likely to increase as the AI boom continued.
There are numerous studies, not all of which conclude with the same figures, ranging from the AI industry emitting as much CO2 as New York City to each AI ChatGPT prompt using a glass of water, but we do know it is a lot. And if we are worried about energy consumption and climate change, it’s time to start thinking about our digital footprints.
In a sense, AI has prompted reflection on how our digital activities can impact the environment. Yes, most people have been well aware for decades that online activity consumes energy, but the vast amounts of power required to use AI systems have led to a refocusing on the impact.
Digital life can have less impact
Of course, it is not just as simple as saying “being online is bad; don’t do it.” There are complexities that should be taken into account. For instance, if you went online to renew your car insurance, it would likely have a much smaller carbon footprint than going to the DVA to do it in person.
Even entertainment can be better for the environment. Consider if you play online slots, then work out how much more energy would be used for a trip to a physical casino to play. Factor in the car journey, the electricity used by the casino, the car journeys for the staff, and a myriad of other factors.
Yet, none of that takes away from the fact that there is growing concern over how our digital activity impacts the environment. At its heart, arguably, is the idea of the pointless use of AI bots for activities like image generation or video generation, including the production of AI slop.
Questions over pointless energy consumption
Over the past few years, there have been instances of ‘viral’ AI features, with users flooding the web with images based on some new capability from an AI bot. For example, in 2025 it became fashionable for people to transform themselves into action figures using image generators. Other trends include people creating anime images in the style of Studio Ghibli.
In some quarters, there was an outcry when these images appeared everywhere on the web (the surge in demand was such that OpenAI had to limit usage), arguing that the vast energy requirements for doing something so essentially pointless effectively made the activities immoral.
As you might expect, some countries are pushing for action, particularly in the EU. Both individual member states and the Bloc as a whole have demanded action, including looking at the vast amounts of energy involved in the training stage for AI. Yet, as we know, these things take a long time to implement, and the widespread use of AI has arrived suddenly. Moreover, the reluctance of the US to implement environmental guardrails is concerning.
What can we do?
Yet, it is worth asking the question if we, as consumers, can do our part. In the same way that we might recycle or decide to use an electric car, perhaps there can be grassroots initiatives that help us lower our carbon footprint in the absence of Big Tech companies or governments acting.
For example, consider that an AI prompt is estimated to use 5-10 more times energy than a traditional Google Search. That’s fair enough, but then consider that AI overviews are now built into Google Search, thus you are prompting AI by default. But you can switch it off, at least technically, by using a browser extension like “Bye Bye AI”. Hopefully, Google and other eventually provide simple opt-out functions.
The problem, though, is that AI has become a kind of arms race, where everyone wants to implement the technology into their products as quickly as possible. Many companies see this period as similar to the 1990s and the rollout of the web, and nobody wants to be left behind. But for us, it must at least begin with asking questions on how we use AI and how our digital lives are truly impacting the environment.
The post An AI Warning: Is It Time to Consider Our Digital Carbon Footprints? appeared first on Moss and Fog.