AI DAMAGE QUIZ

REAL NUMBERS · NO SIGN-UP

QUESTION 1 OF 5SCORE 0

One chatbot question uses about as much electricity as a microwave running for…

One chatbot question uses about as much electricity as a microwave running for…
- 1 second
- 1 minute
- 10 minutes
Show the answer
Answer: 1 second
Google measured 0.24 Wh for a typical Gemini text prompt. A microwave uses that in under a second. Chatting is cheap.
source: Google, Aug 2025
One heavy coding-agent prompt uses as much energy as how many chatbot questions?
- 6
- 60
- 600
Show the answer
Answer: 600
Coding agents re-read their whole context thousands of times. One researcher's Claude Code logs came to ~150 Wh per prompt. That's about 9 minutes of microwave.
source: Hausfather, The Climate Brink, Aug 2026 (range 250–1,200)
How much did RAM contract prices go up in the first 3 months of 2026?
- +10%
- +45%
- +95%
Show the answer
Answer: +95%
AI data centers need huge amounts of memory, so chipmakers moved production to AI chips. Everyone else pays more. Another +58–63% was expected the next quarter.
✶ Your share of this: +$0.0000079 per stick. Made up. The +95% is real.
source: TrendForce, Jun 2026 (+93–98% QoQ)
How much water does one chatbot question use?
- About 5 drops
- About a bottle
- Depends who's counting
Show the answer
Answer: Depends who's counting
Google says ~5 drops (0.26 mL), counting only cooling inside the data center. Researchers who also count the water used by power plants get much bigger numbers. Both measure something real.
source: Google, Aug 2025 · UC Riverside (Ren)
What share of US electricity will data centers use by 2030?
- 3%
- 12%
- 30%
Show the answer
Answer: 12%
Data centers used 4.4% in 2023. Berkeley Lab now projects about 12% by 2030 (range 9.5–15%).
source: LBNL 2025 update, Jun 2026

Numbers as of September 2026