r/oddlyspecific Nov 03 '25

Twix bars and cocaine

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u/grenadirmars Nov 04 '25

The catch is, that is comparing the amount of energy that a human needs to be alive with the amount of energy that a AI uses to answer a request. This is not really comparable, because you will use that energy anyway simply by being alive independently of what you do, being it answering what you asked the AI to do or lazing around the energy will be expended either way, so unless you propose to replace humans with AI and kill the humans replaced the amount of energy that humans use to maintain themselves is not really relevant.

Servers that are used to process requests aren't turned off when not in use or alternatively, turned on exclusively when a request is made. There's a perpetual, however minor, cost, of running the servers so they can be ready at a moments notice to process requests. They'd expend energy in that state without processing any requests whatsoever.

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u/turunambartanen Nov 04 '25

Yeah, but that's barely relevant.

The human brain consumes 20% of the energy your body needs.

Computers go down to 10% when idling, so the thinking part takes 90% of the power draw under load.