Part 4 of 5 in a blog series looking at AI’s journey since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022.

In the last instalment of this blog series, we saw how the real framing of the AI sustainability question is this: “Does AI reduce the total energy required to achieve meaningful outcomes?”

To answer this question, we need to look at more than server racks, and take a systems perspective. The total energy cost must take into account human labour, organisational processes, and the physical world in which humans and machines co-exist. This makes it much harder to assess.

The first thing to note is that reducing the cost per computation doesn’t necessarily reduce overall cost, since there is a rebound effect. Cheaper compute makes it cost-effective to run more tasks, explore more scenarios, generate more content, and demand more infrastructure. The net effect of falling energy cost per operation can be to increase absolute energy demand.

However, when AI genuinely replaces repetitive cognitive labour – the human grunt work of searching, integrating, cross-checking, drafting, and reconciling – the potential energy savings at a societal level are enormous. The baseline for this aspect of the calculation is the human brain. Without romanticising human cognition or rejecting automation, it’s vital to recognise that millions of years of evolution have made the brain astonishingly energy-efficient. It runs on roughly 20 watts, a fraction of the power consumed by even a mid-range laptop. Yet it perceives, integrates, abstracts, judges, and invents in ways machines still cannot match.

This means that AI’s true energy saving potential lies in supporting human decision-making, not replacing it. And there’s a great operational fit. Unlike modern software, including AI, the brain didn’t evolve to exhaustively compute every possibility. It evolved to prioritise what matters, ignore what doesn’t, and make good-enough decisions quickly.  AI will be most sustainable – and most transformative – when it helps humans focus on judgement, creativity, and care, rather than on repetitive, low-value work.

There is also a third aspect that we need to consider. Looking beyond individual tasks, the sustainability opportunity isn’t merely in cutting the energy cost of providing a response to an LLM query. It’s in reducing the total energy cost across the collaborative processes required to get anything done in the world:

• Consultations and meetings
• Back-and-forth iterations
• Compliance checks
• The impact of unexpected events and delays

AI has the potential to reduce total energy consumption by reducing human friction. This would be a genuine sustainability win, that goes far beyond infrastructure optimisation. But to unlock that win, we have to uncover the hidden energy in the world of human work and look closer at the meaning of efficiency.

To learn more, continue following this blog series.

Author

Keith Harrison-Broninski is an author, researcher, and keynote speaker specialising in cross-boundary collaboration, community antifragility, and technology for good. Keith’s awards include from Gartner for social enterprise and from the NHS for technology to replicate healthcare innovations.

Keith’s first book “Human Interactions” (2005) was described by Information Age as “the overarching framework for 21st century business technology”. Keith’s other books include two for Springer and three for the Workflow Management coalition. Keith’s most recent book “Supercommunities” (2021) was described by the Chief Executive of the RSA in his foreword as “Ranging from ancient history to economics to psychology to public policy ‘Supercommunities’ is both authoritative and highly readable. It puts our current challenges in context, shows why change is necessary and provides a trove of practical ideas for change makers.”

Vint Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet, in a second foreword, wrote “Supercommunities offers a path away from social and economic meltdown … We will need to replace short-term thinking with long term planning and execution if we are to regain upward motion towards common benefit for everyone on Spaceship Earth. To begin, read this book!”

Keith currently focuses on creating the Internet of Communities via his company’s revolutionary technology “Dedoctive” – a fundamental AI innovation, academically-validated for the MoD as fully trustworthy, that empowers reliable access to complex information for all.

Keith is also a jazz pianist, traditional folk musician, and classical composer. He has released 9 albums and performs regularly with a wide range of other musicians.

More information

Email Keith Harrison-Broninski: khb@dedoctive.ai