As tools like Claude Code and ChatGPT lower the barrier to programming and content creation, higher education and enterprise sectors are left navigating both immense opportunities and severe environmental risks. AI can help track Antarctic icebergs 10,000 times faster than humans and improve renewable energy grids, but it also consumes incredible amounts of energy and water, threatening to undermine those same climate benefits.
Every step of AI computing comes with a carbon cost. While training these massive models consumes astronomical amounts of power, the real ongoing energy hog is the large volume of data consumed by video and image generation.
The “What Uses More?” Calculator: A Helpful Exercise
If you want to conceptualize the physical toll of your digital habits, a fantastic resource is What Uses More. This nonpartisan calculator provides an objective comparison of the energy and water usage of various AI tasks versus common digital activities, like watching a one-hour Netflix movie or searching Google without AI.
The data provided should be taken strictly as estimates. The platform explicitly warns users: “These are estimates based on incomplete and often contradictory sources.”
Yale’s 13 Guidelines for Climate-Friendlier AI
Echoing Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws for Robots, Yale’s 13 Guidelines outlines ways for consumers to reduce their footprint. Some of the guidelines function as best practices, such as focusing on shorter and more intentional prompts. The Guidelines also include best practices for corporations, which are the largest contributors to AI usage. These statements recall the discourse of celebrities burning jet fuel as they advocate for climate change.
AI is not an unstoppable force of nature; it is a tool that we are actively building and using right now. By integrating these practical guidelines into instructional design and daily workflows, we can steer this technology toward its best climate potential.
Users Killed the AI Star
OpenAI is sunsetting Sora, a video generation tool with subscription prices up to $300 a month. The move has disrupted a billion-dollar deal with Disney. The deal with Disney created controversy, as Disney has a history of strict control over its IP. Students have created “poster wars” over the partnership due to fears of AI slop replacing the creative arts, including at the Walt Disney-founded institution, CalArts. CalArts Secretly Scrambling to Stop Anti AI Protests (and It’s Not Working),
With AI tools continually becoming more accessible with the aid of OpenClaw, it is foreseeable that the energy costs will continue to decline. The discourse around which tools and how to use them will remain nuanced. Campuses should aim to develop clear guidelines and use cases that reflect their students and faculty at the unit level. These structures may resemble decentralized units or organized anarchy, creating both challenges and opportunities for higher education technology managers to enact positive change.
