AI doesn’t “create” consumption. AI replaces distributed, inefficient consumption with concentrated, optimized consumption.
Here’s a simple, real example.
A few years ago, if I needed something technical like the ZPL documentation for a label printer, I could easily spend:
Today, I ask an AI and in 30 seconds I get:
Yes, there’s a GPU behind it that consumes energy. But what’s no longer happening is:
In real life, the overall energy balance is often significantly lower.
And this effect is even stronger in creative work.
Think about video production.
A scene that used to require:
Today, many scenes can be generated digitally. Some GPU time, yes. But no transportation, no physical set, no material waste, no on-site logistics.
It’s pure dematerialization.
AI doesn’t eliminate energy usage: it shifts it from millions of inefficient physical processes to fewer, highly optimized digital ones.
It’s the same transition we already saw with:
Now it’s happening with:
The real energy waste isn’t a GPU doing math.
It’s a human spending three hours searching for what a machine can surface in ten seconds.
And while we search, the physical world keeps consuming.
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