As AI systems proliferate, their greenhouse gas emissions are an increasingly
important concern for human societies. We analyze the emissions of several AI
systems (ChatGPT, BLOOM, DALL-E2, Midjourney) relative to those of humans
completing the same tasks. We find that an AI writing a page of text emits 130
to 1500 times less CO2e than a human doing so. Similarly, an AI creating an
image emits 310 to 2900 times less. Emissions analysis do not account for
social impacts such as professional displacement, legality, and rebound
effects. In addition, AI is not a substitute for all human tasks. Nevertheless,
at present, the use of AI holds the potential to carry out several major
activities at much lower emission levels than can humans.

本文研究了几个 AI 系统（ChatGPT，BLOOM，DALL-E2，Midjourney）的排放，发现相对于人类完成相同任务，AI 系统写一页文本排放的 CO2e 最多降低了 1500 倍，制作图像排放 CO2e 最多降低了 2900 倍，但是没有考虑到社会影响及 AI 不能替代所有人类工作的限制。不过，目前使用 AI 执行多项重要活动的排放水平远低于人类。