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A research group at the University of Rhode Island’s AI lab has found that a medium-length response from GPT-5 consumes an average of 18 watt-hours. This is a substantial increase from previous models and places GPT-5 among the most energy-intensive AIs ever benchmarked. To put this into perspective, 18 watt-hours is enough to power an incandescent light bulb for 18 minutes.
And I don’t think people are making one request every eighteen minutes.