2026-01-17 04:22:46

Food labels show you calorie counts. Why not do the same for AI queries? Every time someone fires up an LLM, there's actual energy burning behind it—compute power, electricity, infrastructure costs. The environmental footprint and operational expense are real, but they're invisible to end users. If we slapped energy metrics on every search, generation, or analysis run through these models, people might actually think twice about their usage patterns. Transparency could shift behavior. It's about making the hidden costs visible, just like nutrition facts changed how people think about what they eat.

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OldLeekNewSickle

· 1h ago

This idea is interesting, but essentially it's about giving AI users a "heat map" so that they can see the energy consumption numbers and get scared. The question is... does anyone really care? The crypto mining community has long stopped caring about the hash rate, let alone just querying an LLM. No matter how transparent it is, it can't change the algorithm, just like people who see through the "harvesting" mechanism still enter the market—it's just a matter of psychological burden.

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GasFeeCrying

· 4h ago

NGL, this idea isn't bad, but can it really change people's behavior? I think most people will still continue to use it wildly.

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UncleWhale

· 4h ago

This idea is really brilliant. Large models burn money and electricity every time they run, and users are completely unaware. --- Alright, more tags again. Who's going to look at them later? --- Wow, that analogy is amazing. Nutrition facts really changed people's habits, and maybe an AI energy meter could do the same. --- Transparency sounds good, but the key is whether it's affordable. No one cares if it's expensive, even with more tags. --- Showing carbon emissions with every prompt? Then I have to agonize for a long time before I can ask a question.

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PaperHandsCriminal

· 4h ago

Haha, once again trying to ask us to conserve energy and reduce emissions. We've long needed to regulate these LLM power-hungry models. --- Really? Every time there's a flood of questions, it's burning money, but users can't see that the electric meter is spinning. --- The calorie label analogy is brilliant. Otherwise, who would know how many silly questions they ask AI in a day? --- The problem is, even if the energy consumption is marked, we might still ask randomly, just like knowing how much sugar is in cola but still drinking it anyway... --- This logic isn't flawed, but when you calculate it, it might be more frightening than your gas bill. You’ll really have to weigh whether it's worth it. --- Transparency is good and all, but I bet five cents no one will care. Anyway, it doesn't cost me much.

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RugpullSurvivor

· 5h ago

Someone should have said this earlier; the issue of LLMs consuming electricity really needs to be openly discussed.

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GasFeeSobber

· 5h ago

Haha, this idea is pretty good... but the question is, who will foot the bill?

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