{"id":21346,"date":"2026-06-03T21:29:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/want-to-save-the-planet-stop-being-so-polite-to-ai-chatbots\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:29:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:29:48","slug":"want-to-save-the-planet-stop-being-so-polite-to-ai-chatbots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/want-to-save-the-planet-stop-being-so-polite-to-ai-chatbots\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to save the planet? Stop being so polite to AI chatbots"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/og_image_scmp_generic\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/06\/03\/9953675b-4f96-4e87-aae8-1e856608877f_f2747e38.jpg?itok=lRrh2NLN&amp;v=1780498086\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Skipping pleasantries like &ldquo;please&rdquo; and &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; when talking to chatbots could save enough energy to power the annual needs of 760,000 residents in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the massive but often hidden environmental toll of artificial intelligence, according to a new UN report.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Released by the Institute for Water, Environment and Health under the United Nations University, the UN&rsquo;s academic arm, the study published on Wednesday also warned that the true cost of AI extended far beyond carbon emissions to include water consumption, land use and electronic waste.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Data centres, which serve as the physical backbone of AI, consumed an estimated 448 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity last year. If data centres were a country, they would rank 11th in the world for energy consumption, roughly on par with France.<\/p>\n<div data-qa=\"InlineAdSlot-Container\" class=\"css-zl1inp e11v3ui14\">\n<div class=\"e11v3ui10 e11v3ui13 css-1umbx1w e1flwkbl0\" data-qa=\"AdSlot-Container\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Generating this amount of electricity required around 4.5 trillion litres (1.2 trillion gallons) of water &ndash; enough to fill 1.8 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. The infrastructure demanded 6,900 sq km (2,700 square miles) of land, which is nearly 4.5 times the size of Greater London, the report said.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\" readability=\"8.9035087719298\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">This staggering footprint<\/span> is only expected to balloon as AI usage skyrockets. The report projected AI-related electricity consumption to reach 945 TWh by 2030, accounting for nearly 3 per cent of total global electricity demand.<\/div>\n<div data-qa=\"InlineAdSlot-Container\" class=\"css-zl1inp e11v3ui14\">\n<div class=\"e11v3ui10 e11v3ui13 css-1xd1hm8 e1flwkbl0\" data-qa=\"AdSlot-Container\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Furthermore, by 2030, AI infrastructure could generate up to 2.5 million tonnes of e-waste each year &ndash; the equivalent of discarding 250 Eiffel Towers annually.<\/p>\n<div class=\"methode-html-wrapper oembed-wrapper e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"c1 e2gky7d0 e1drg7e30 e1ciypty0 ehdmpxk0 css-1avyp1d e1hpd36k0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"e1hpd36k3 css-1w4b7vg e1x11wau0\" data-qa=\"SCMPYouTubeVideoFooter-VideoTitleContainer\" readability=\"7\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"25\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 25\" fill=\"none\" data-qa=\"SCMPYouTubeVideoFooter-StyledVideoRecorder\" class=\"css-1nnwg93 e1x11wau1\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M22 6.22926V18.4315L17.5463 13.9868V17.8655C17.5463 18.1618 17.4383 18.4248 17.2228 18.6531C17.0067 18.8829 16.7498 18.9967 16.4537 18.9967H3.13414C2.80989 18.9967 2.53968 18.8829 2.32425 18.6531C2.10808 18.4248 2 18.1618 2 17.8655V6.79519C2 6.49893 2.10808 6.23665 2.32425 6.00688C2.53968 5.77858 2.80989 5.66333 3.13414 5.66333H16.4537C16.7498 5.66333 17.0067 5.77858 17.2228 6.00688C17.4383 6.23665 17.5463 6.49893 17.5463 6.79519V10.674L22 6.22926Z\" fill=\"#001246\"><\/path><\/svg>\n<p>How AI shamans &lsquo;predict&rsquo; the fortunes of curious South Koreans<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>Want to save the planet? Stop being so polite to AI chatbots<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skipping pleasantries like &ldquo;please&rdquo; and &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; when talking to chatbots could save enough energy to power the annual needs of 760,000 residents in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the massive but often hidden environmental toll of artificial intelligence, according to a new UN report. Released by the Institute for Water, Environment and Health under the United&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/want-to-save-the-planet-stop-being-so-polite-to-ai-chatbots\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Want to save the planet? Stop being so polite to AI chatbots&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}