This time, the ‘Digital Salon’ event series organised by the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) will focus on the ecological cost of AI systems, under the title “Watt for a Prompt”.
Katharina Mosene will moderate the event, discussing the topic with Friederike Rohde, a technology sociologist at the Berlin Ethics Lab at TU Berlin, among others. Laura State, a postdoctoral researcher in the Project Impact AI at HIIG, will give the introduction.
This “Digitaler Salon” on “Watt für’n Prompt” [Watt for a Prompt] will be held in German.
About the Event
Do I really need to ask an AI, such as ChatGPT or Claude, whether I can wash my woolen sweater in hot water or if I can freeze bread? Every query to a chatbot — more than a billion per day worldwide — consumes energy. These answers originate in massive data centers whose servers require electricity and are cooled with water. Amidst a worsening climate crisis, the widespread use of AI systems leaves an ecological footprint that cannot be ignored. But how much electricity and water are actually consumed? How could AI systems be made more environmentally sustainable in the future? In the October edition of the Digital Salon, experts will discuss the technical and political steps necessary to design environmentally and climate-friendly AI solutions.
