520,000,000 per month = 6,240,000,000 searches per year
8,500,000,000 per day = 3,102,500,000,000 searches per year
divide both sides by a million to get
6,240/3,102,500
or about 0.2%, which matches up pretty closely with your 30 day per month approximation and makes sense to me.
OK.
So—bottom line:
1. Google Search is currently using 500 times as much electricity as ChatGPT. (Check my math…)
2. Both products get it wrong too much, but Google Search makes you jump over a page worth of ads before you figure out you there’s nothing there
3. Google Search is a monopoly that’s been allowed to exist as one for decades
Well Ollie, that’s a fine mess you’ve gotten us into!
Well, you're comparing asking an AI a question, with asking an AI a question AND getting internet search results.
Today, every Google search makes use of Google's own AI to generate responses that are then put to the top of the list. I'd be interested to see what the energy costs looked like if you removed all that AI energy waste from the equation (like a comparison with duck duck go's responses for example).
No, every Google search does not generate a Gemini response. Search-sans-AI and other uses of the Internet use MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY.
But to the general point, yes—AI is growing users by leaps and bounds and it appears we are just seeing the start of it. This is being embraced throughout the world and all major countries anre investing heavily to get traction. I personally can’t think of another technology that has been adopted so quickly.
We can only hope that the energy used in the future to support such usage is relatively clean—because it’s abundantly clear that the direction is set and progress will not be halted in the name of energy reduction, AI fears, or whatever.
