Original publication on the ZHAW Blog for Marketing Management Link to the original article:
Digital avatars, animated Alpine panoramas and a growing ecological footprint - what appears playful and harmless at first glance has an invisible dark side. The current hype surrounding AI-generated images, selfie figures and Ghibli aesthetics not only shows how creative users are with tools such as ChatGPT - it also raises serious questions about sustainability.
Whether LinkedIn feed or Instagram story - anyone who has been active on social media in recent weeks is likely to have encountered a new form of self-presentation: their own digital avatar, stylized as an action figure in plastic packaging. What began with a single creative post quickly became a viral phenomenon - fueled by the new possibilities of OpenAI's GPT-4o model.
Instead of tedious tinkering in graphics programs, a single, well-formulated prompt is all that is needed today - and ChatGPT delivers amazingly realistic images based on DALL-E integration. The new ease of image generation is seductive: What used to take hours can now be done in seconds.
But this new lightness comes at a price.
Energy-intensive processes run in the background behind every single image output: Thousands of GPUs work in parallel, fed by data centers whose power consumption skyrockets. According to initial calculations, a single ChatGPT request generates an average of 4.32 gram CO₂ - With billions of requests per month, this results in a serious environmental impact.
According to estimates, OpenAI itself uses around 30,000 GPUs dailyemissions of up to 43 tons of CO₂ per day can mean - comparable with 3,500 car journeys. One thing is clear: even digital creativity is not emission-free.
Alongside the action figures, a second style became a social media favorite: the iconic look of the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli. Mountains, meadows, selfies - everything was chased through AI filters until even tourist organizations like Grisons Tourism joined in: "This is what summer in Graubünden looks like Ghibli style," was the caption of a post on Instagram.
Image source: Graubünden; This is what summer in Graubünden looks like in Japanese Ghibli style. Who recognizes the sights? (Instagram.) https://www.instagram.com/p/DH_fl0WKcs9/?img_index=1
The reactions? Mixed. Between enthusiasm for the creative aesthetics and critical voices à la "Graubünden doesn't need AI to be beautiful", there was a growing sense of unease: where does playful design end - and where does greenwashing through technology begin?
What is often forgotten is that the training of AI systems is also ecologically relevant. According to a study by the University of California, Riverside, training a single model such as GPT can consume several million liters of water - enough to produce hundreds of vehicles. The reason? Cooling. The enormous heat of the chips has to be constantly regulated - usually with water.
In a recent report, MIT also warns that AI could become a global threat by 2027. several billion cubic meters of water per year more than the entire consumption of Denmark. And we are only at the beginning of this development.
While renovation, electromobility and nutrition are discussed in political discourse, digital infrastructure remains conspicuously unmentioned. Server rooms are wrongly regarded as "immaterial" - but they are real consumers of energy, water and space. And although Switzerland has a high proportion of hydropower in its electricity mix, fossil fuels are also used here at peak times.
The imported electricity that many cloud providers purchase also often comes from countries with a significantly poorer energy balance. In short, the green credentials of many AI projects hardly stand up to a sustainability check.
What can be done? In addition to the infrastructure, there is great potential in the design of digital applications themselves. Keyword: Green UX. Developing websites with low data volumes, optimized images and lean code saves energy - and improves the Google ranking at the same time. This is because faster pages lead to lower bounce rates and better visibility.
Sustainability and visibility are not contradictory - on the contrary: they complement each other strategically. As the designer Yves Béhar formulated:
"Sustainability and social responsibility are the new values of the 21st century - designers must integrate them into every project."
The hype surrounding digital action figures, Ghibli aesthetics and AI-generated art is a fascinating example of the creative power of new technologies. However, it is precisely this fascination that must not obscure the ecological consequences. Because what appears digital has real effects - in the server room, in the power grid and in the global consumption of resources.
It's time to make the digital footprint more visible - and to combine innovation with responsibility.
Note: This article is based on the original guest article by David Bachetti and Thomas Bigliel, published on the ZHAW Blog for Marketing Management:
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At Agent AGENTUR, my passion for managing web and marketing projects takes on a whole new dimension. With the motto: "Innovation & creativity at heart, digitalization in sight", I meet every challenge and use the creative and dynamic environment of the agency to push boundaries.
In addition to my digital vocation, I draw energy and inspiration from my deep connection to nature and my involvement in intense sport. This balance allows me to transfer the vibrancy of the real world into the digital world.
I approach each project individually and with a keen eye for hidden potential, I always focus on creativity, strategy and structure - my personal credo is to always act "007 instead of 08/15".