/Tech4h ago

Andy Masley launches an online calculator estimating the carbon and water footprint of GPT, Claude, and Gemini prompts

It compares AI resource consumption to common lifestyle activities.

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Original post
Andy Masley@AndyMasley

New Yorker recently. This idea will never die.

5:45 PM · Jun 10, 2026 · 741.7K Views
Sentiment

Positive users praised the New Yorker cartoon joking about AI water consumption for its humor, while negative users called it embarrassing or libelous.

Pos
62.5%
Neg
37.5%
8 comments with sentiment.
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Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias

@AndyMasley It’s a good parenting joke though

20hViews 14.3KLikes 222Bookmarks 2
BOOKMARKS13RETWEETS7
Andy Masley@AndyMasley

To see how much water your AI prompts actually use you can use this tool which compares the best current expert estimates to your total water footprint https://www.andymasley.com/visuals/ai-prompt-footprint/

Andy Masley@AndyMasley

New Yorker recently. This idea will never die.

4hViews 2.9KLikes 28Bookmarks 13
LIKES225REPLIES12
port@smkmnstr

@AndyMasley Someone fixed it, can’t find where I saw it originally (on here)

19hViews 6.7KLikes 225Bookmarks 5
StoneShark@StoneShark09

@AndyMasley But this lil goober…

11hViews 2.7KLikes 62Bookmarks 3
HobbsJW@HobbJW

@smkmnstr @AndyMasley I live in a state that has plenty of cows and pigs. We didn’t have water rationing until the Data centers started moving in. Now we do.

15hViews 488Likes 60
Martin Varsavsky@martinvars

@AndyMasley The idea survives because every generation discovers the same thing in a new costume: the tool changes, but the fear is always that someone else will think faster, make faster, or learn faster. AI is only the latest mirror.

14hViews 3.4KLikes 23Bookmarks 2
DerRichtige@DerRichtige

@AndyMasley depends on the data center, and the municipality!

https://youtu.be/eXXwN_TDdLU

13hViews 2.8KLikes 3Bookmarks 3
Tim Carney@TPCarney

@mattyglesias @AndyMasley Your children will only ever want water in two circumstances: 1) When you desperately need them to be in bed 2) When you buckle them into a car for a 30-minute drive.

20hViews 881Likes 18
Nerd's Quest@TheNerdsQuest

@AndyMasley “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on”

20hViews 586Likes 10Bookmarks 1
Andres Hernandez@cybereality

@AndyMasley people keep saying "now with ai you can't believe anything you read anymore!!!" first time?

11hViews 1.2KLikes 8
Tempo@Tempo_past

@smkmnstr @AndyMasley I'll assume you don't drink milk nor consume meat, but if you then you shouldn't and you must start eating... prompts?

13hViews 283Likes 12

@AndyMasley It is like an anti-shibboleth - when someone uses it it shows that he does not care about facts.

11hViews 1.3KLikes 1Bookmarks 1
Murse@VeryOnlineMurse

@AndyMasley

5hViews 200Likes 1Bookmarks 1
namu🍀@_kaurn

@smkmnstr @AndyMasley Well, we dont actually need generative ai and its data centres. Also, this planet is as much theirs(other animals) as it is ours(humans)

9hViews 205Likes 8

@smkmnstr @AndyMasley 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Go vegan ! AI uses 0.5% of what the meat industry does

9hViews 115
Shadeus@Shadeus8

@AndyMasley Hint: AIs don't require data centers to run. Total surveillance and social credit systems do.

5hViews 82Bookmarks 1

@AndyMasley Responses from AI queries should have a logged glass of water cost in honor of this to assign to users so you can calculate their water debt to society instead of putting it into the pretend money system because water is real.

9hViews 76Bookmarks 1
Brennan McDonald@brnnnmcdnld

@AndyMasley It's kind of funny that when we worry so much about AI generated misinformation, it's misinformation *about* AI which has run away to the races and affected so many people.

14hViews 1.8KLikes 5
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