When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Heres how it works.
Digital Sustainability Specialist at Jisc.
Every iteration of the GPT architecture, however, comes at a steep environmental price.
The theory goes that an AI needing fewer GPUs should, in principle, consume less energy overall.
DeepSeek, meanwhile, claims to require fewer high-end chips, potentially reducing its total electricity draw.
Data Centers and Energy Sources
Powering ChatGPT on Microsofts Azure platform has its upsides and downsides.
Microsoft is working to become carbon-negative by 2030, underpinned by investments in green energy and carbon capture.
That said, DeepSeeks focus on efficiency might still make it less carbon-intensive overall.
Water Usage and Cooling
Running giant clusters of GPUs produces heat lots of it.
Data centres typically use vast amounts of water for cooling, especially in regions with high temperatures.
Information on DeepSeeks water footprint is scant.
In principle, DeepSeeks more frugal approach implies fewer chips, which could mean slower turnover and less waste.
Still, this remains an educated guess until theres more visibility into how DeepSeeks hardware ecosystem is managed.
Where Do They Stand?
That said, the U.S. is hardly a clean-energy haven either.
We’ve created a comprehensive list of the best AI tools.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc.
