That means gpt can write >1000 emails using the resources of feeding a single person lunch. The resource efficiency of these machines already is really quite astonishing.
Jevons Paradox directly contradicts this, replacing an activity with more efficient means doesn't correlate to a decrease in resource consumption.
The water claim is from an academic paper, I found slightly more detail in another article: “In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity.”
These estimates are partly based on this data: “In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.”
What kind of bulbs are those? 5 W? 10 W? 0.5 W? This comparison is pretty useless and therefore raises the suspicion that it was chosen so it can be easily exaggerated. I mean, it's Ok to have something to compare it to, but they should also include the actual Wh figure.