Mistral’s new “environmental audit” shows how much AI is hurting the planet.

The environmental impact of artificial intelligence is a topic about which surprisingly little is known. There is no doubt that its excessive use is depleting the planet's resources, but when it comes to data, it is quite difficult to obtain accurate results. To address this shortcoming, the French company Mistral, which specializes in creating AI models, recently conducted in-depth research on the subject.

According to the study, the environmental impact of a single request made to an AI model is quite negligible, even less than other tasks performed on the Internet. Nevertheless, if a single request subsequently becomes part of a billion similar tasks, the consequences will grow in direct proportion.

In collaboration with sustainability consulting firm Carbone 4 and the French Agency for Ecological Transition, Mistral spent 18 months on the project. The research also followed the French government's “Frugal AI” guidelines for measuring overall environmental impact, focusing on three main areas: greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), water consumption, and material consumption.