Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lika Kobeshavidze
“Every time we ask an AI tool a question, it silently consumes electricity and water. But until now, we never knew how much. Google has set the record straight by publishing calculations from its Gemini model. … According to the company, one text query to the system consumes as much energy as watching nine seconds of TV, uses about five drops of water, and releases 0.03 grams of CO₂. This doesn’t seem like much, right? But imagine millions of users making multiple requests at the same time, several times per minute. These numbers add up quickly. So, how much electricity will it take to satisfy our growing appetite for artificial intelligence? If we continue to use AI as we do now, we will need more electricity. Because of this, major tech executives suggested that nuclear power is an inevitable solution to meet these needs.” (09/15/25)