Google has published a new blog detailing the environmental footprint of its Gemini chatbot, claiming that the model consumes the equivalent of only five drops of water per text query—although researchers note that much of the actual consumption was excluded from the analysis.
According to the published data, each Gemini query uses energy equivalent to watching TV for nine seconds, with minimal carbon emissions. Google also states that Gemini has become 33 times more energy-efficient over the past year, while carbon emissions have been reduced by 44 times, despite the growing capacity and complexity of the models themselves.
The study showed that a single Gemini query consumes 0.24 Wh of energy, slightly below the 0.34 Wh average previously reported by Sam Altman for ChatGPT. However, critics warn that the analysis did not include water usage at power plants producing energy for data centers, which actually constitutes the largest part of total consumption.
While Google’s move toward greater transparency regarding AI’s environmental impact is a positive step, many consider the results overly optimistic. It is increasingly clear that the industry needs an independent, third-party standard to obtain a complete and realistic picture of the actual impact of artificial intelligence on the environment.
In Brief: Tech World Highlights
- Anthropic expanded the availability of its agent tool for programming, Claude Code, to Enterprise and Team packages, with new administrative controls for cost management, policy settings, and more.
- MIT’s NANDA initiative revealed that only 5% of enterprise AI implementations generate revenue, while knowledge gaps and poor integration hinder broader adoption.
- Sebastien Bubeck from OpenAI stated that GPT-5-pro can “prove new interesting mathematical theorems,” using the model to solve open complex problems.
- Google product lead Logan Kilpatrick posted a banana emoji on X, hinting that the “nano-banana” photo-editing model being tested on LM Arena likely comes from Google.
- OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Go, a cheaper subscription specifically for India, priced under $5 per month with local currency payment options.
AI Trending Tools:
- Qwen-Image-Edit – Qwen’s new image editing model.
- Eleven Music API – Integration of high-quality music into products and workflows.
- GenFlow 2.0 – Baidu’s general AI agent for complex tasks.
