this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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The University of Rhode Island's AI lab estimates that GPT-5 averages just over 18 Wh per query, so putting all of ChatGPT's reported 2.5 billion requests a day through the model could see energy usage as high as 45 GWh.

A daily energy use of 45 GWh is enormous. A typical modern nuclear power plant produces between 1 and 1.6 GW of electricity per reactor per hour, so data centers running OpenAI's GPT-5 at 18 Wh per query could require the power equivalent of two to three nuclear power reactors, an amount that could be enough to power a small country.

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[–] kautau@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

And water usage which will also increase as fires increase and people have trouble getting access to clean water

https://techhq.com/news/ai-water-footprint-suggests-that-large-language-models-are-thirsty/

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

It would only take one regulation to fix that:

Datacenters that use liquid cooling must use closed loop systems.

The reason they dont, and why they setup in the desert, is because water is incredibly cheap and energy to cool a closed loop system is expensive. So they use evaporative open loop systems.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Unfortunately I wonder if it’s more expensive to set up a closed loop system that’s really expensive or to buy lawmakers that will vote against bills saying you should do so and it’s a tale old as time

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] kautau@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Yeah sorry forgot my /s there

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

That increases your energy use though, because evaporative cooling is very energy efficient.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

We can make energy from renewable sources.

Fresh drinking water is finite, especially in the desert.