Despite what Google advances, Gemini and AI are a disaster for the planet

Last June, Sam Altman declared thatA chatgpt query consumed on average 0.32 ml of watereither “about a fifteenth teaspoon”. In this August 21, 2025, it is Google’s turn to give figures in order to reassure the public on the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. In a studythe Mountain View firm gives its own estimates for text queries on Gemini. However, experts report that the results announced are far from correct.

Google minimizes Gemini’s ecological impact

According to Google, a quick median text on Gemini consumes five drops of water, or 0.26 ml. Regarding electricity consumption, a search would be equivalent to watching television for less than nine seconds, or 0.24 Wh, which produces 0.03 grams of carbon dioxide. Lower results than previous studies, at least on paper.

But for Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California in Riverside, and co -author of an article mentioned in Google’s study, the firm only hides critical information. The study only takes into account the direct consumption of data centers during a prompt, in particular the water used to cool the servers. But the main problem, ignored here by Google, would be elsewhere.

In order to train and power ever more efficient and gourmet AI models, the demand for electricity and water is only climbing. This leads to the construction of many new installations, also very greedy in resources, here consumed indirectly by each prompt. For Alex de Vries-Gao, founder of the Digiconomist site, Google’s study only shows the emerged part of the iceberg.

Experts also emphasize that here Google “compares oranges to apples” by putting its study in the face of the previous ones, who were talking about median and not median. Experts also underline that Google preferred to make a global estimate by not delivering figures linked directly to CO2 emission places, generally higher and allowing to better realize the impact of a data center on its environment. Google makes its figures here by taking into account its commitment to use renewable energy.

AI always costs the planet more

If Google says it is proud to have significantly improved the energy consumption of Gemini between May 2024 and 2025, the firm indicates that there is still work to be done in the years to come. The electrical consumption of a quick would have been divided by 33, and the carbon footprint by 44.

Unfortunately, it is difficult today to be optimistic despite some optimizations of this ilk. With always more players in the field of AI, ever more varied and gourmet uses and far from being limited to the simple text, but also always more users, difficult to imagine the race for artificial intelligence and the exhaustion of the planet to slow down anytime.