[10/26/25] The trend of « Starter Packs » generated by artificial intelligence (AI), where users represent themselves in the form of personalized figurines, is popular on social networks. However, this practice has a significant environmental impact. — BFM.

——— Ecological impact of AI-generated images

•⁠ ⁠Electricity consumption: Generating a single high-quality image via AI consumes about 1.6 watt-hours, the equivalent of half the charging of a smartphone. On a large scale, this represents significant energy consumption.

•⁠ ⁠Water use: Each image generated requires between 2 and 5 liters of water for cooling data centers, often drinkable, which raises concerns in a context of growing water scarcity.

•⁠ ⁠CO2 emissions: The production of 1,000 images with AI is equivalent to traveling about 6.5 kilometers in a gasoline car, thus contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

——— Long-term consequences

The International Energy Agency predicts that electricity consumption from data centers could double by 2026, exacerbating environmental challenges related to AI.

— In summary, although entertaining, images generated by AI have a significant ecological cost, in terms of energy consumption, water and CO2 emissions.— 20mnt