In a paper released on arXiv last week, a team of researchers from Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon University calculated the amount of power AI systems use when asked to perform different tasks.
After asking AIs to perform 1,000 inferences for each task, the researchers found text-based AI tasks are more energy-efficient than jobs involving images.
Text generation consumed 0.042kWh while image generation required 1.35kWh. The boffins assert that charging a smartphone requires 0.012kWh – making image generation a very power-hungry application.
“The least efficient image generation model uses as much energy as 950 smartphone charges (11.49kWh), or nearly one charge per image generation,” the authors wrote, noting the “large variation between image generation models, depending on the size of image that they generate.”
The authors also measured carbon dioxide created by different AI workloads. As depicted in the graphic below, image creation topped that chart
Click to enlarge
You can read the full paper here [PDF].
Source: One AI image needs as much power as a smartphone charge • The Register
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