Is Generative Artificial Intelligence bad for the environment?

Definition of Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI is a form of Artificial Intelligence that uses algorithms to automatically generate data and content. It is often used in the fields of art creation, music, video, text generation or in marketing in a broad sense.

While AI is useful and very powerful, the use of generative AI can raise environmental issues.

Does GPT Chat Generative AI pollute?

The popularity of ChatGPT, its growing number of users and the servers that accompany them, may lead you to believe that using this AI is a less environmentally friendly and more energy-intensive alternative to Google.

But think again, it's not the case! This analysis is far too simple and incomplete.

Google vs. ChatGPT

According to a study conducted by 24pm academy, using ChatGPT costs less energy and pollutes less than Google. If the carbon footprint of the entire service cycle is taken into account, then a Google search pollutes more than ChatGPT!

Let's take the example of an informative search: 

• On a search engine like Google, a search will bring up several results. You have to browse several sites and pages to find the answer you are looking for.
  

• On ChatGPT, a precise and detailed search will show you a single answer that will directly answer your search.

In addition to an accurate and direct response, ChatGPT is more energy efficient than Google. Indeed, Google's servers require a huge amount of energy to store and search billions of web pages. 

Each visit you make to a page / site requires a lot of energy for display (HTML, CSS, images, video) but this visit in turn activates connections to other servers like Google analytics, Tag Manager and other tools used by the site. The consumption varies according to the size of the site you visit and the content to be displayed.

ChatGPT, on the other hand, displays only text and uses algorithms to generate responses in real time. This can significantly reduce the energy footprint.

Are generative AIs in marketing environmentally friendly?

Another example of the environmental impact of generative AI can be found in marketing. Marketers often use generative AI to implement their marketing campaign.

You can find AIs that offer you everything from wording generation to AIs for video creation. An example: Namelix, is an AI that generates business names for anyone who wants to start a business.

Generative AI for e-commerce

E-commerce companies have a significant ecological impact because email campaigns are often synonymous with sending mass emails for some. This technique leads to a significant consumption of energy for both sending and storage but especially results in inconclusive.

However, generative AIs like Kiliba allow e-merchants tooptimize the performance of their email campaigns while considerably reducing their environmental impact.

This marketing automation software uses generative AI to automate the creation and sending of personalized and targeted emails, unlike mass emails that are often sent to thousands of recipients. The emails created by Kiliba are specifically designed for each customer based on their buying behavior, interests and browsing history on the e-merchant's website. With the help of its AI, the software is able to create high quality and personalized emails in just a few minutes.

By segmenting customers to better target them, Kiliba shows a much higher conversion rate than mass emails with a significant decrease in the number of emails sent.

In this way, Kiliba contributes to reducing the environmental impact of email marketing campaigns.

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In conclusion, generative AI can have environmental impact benefits. While it can require a lot of energy to run, some applications of this technology, like Kiliba, can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of email marketing campaigns.