Single-player knowledge raid
Every message you send spins up real silicon halfway across the world. This run is about reading the meter — no lectures, just levels, loot, and a final boss called “scale.”
Objective: calibrate your intuition before the HUD lies to you
No A/B/C/D. You’ll set sliders and numbers, lock them in, then the meter shows how close you were to published ballparks.
Move the slider to your best guess in watt-hours (Wh) — one continuous estimate, no buckets.
Ballpark: a phone LED notification is tiny; charging a phone is hundreds of Wh. Where does one AI reply sit?
Objective: break the build — sliders are your weapons
You’ve seen the baseline. Now min-max like it’s a skill tree: crank prompts, words, and model tier until the numbers scream.
Twist the dials. Watch Wh/day, yearly kWh, and CO₂ re-roll in real time.
Your build vs. everyday “bosses”: shower, laptop, EV. Slide prompts — who wins DPS?
Type any whole number you think is fair — then we’ll show the math.
Hint: divide shower energy by energy per prompt. You can still be wrong — the point is to try before peeking.
Warning: intuition damage spike incoming
Solo stats felt harmless. Now multiply by everyone. This is the raid mechanic most people never see.
ChatGPT has roughly 400 million weekly active users.
Assume each sends 5 prompts per day. That's...
Work it out roughly: billions of prompts × a few Wh each, then convert to million kWh per day (what utilities and news often quote).
Example: if you think it’s 31 million kWh/day, enter 31. Raw GPU math is ~6M before data-center overhead — many people land low.
Objective: read the scoreboard and claim your title
Run complete. Here’s your stat screen, the bar charts, and the patch notes reality shipped without asking.
Here's what the data actually shows about where energy goes:
If you stopped ChatGPT for 14 years (~50,000 queries), you'd save ~100 kg CO₂. Compare:
Based on everything you've discovered, write your conclusion. What's the most important thing you learned? What would you tell someone who asked "should I feel guilty about using ChatGPT?"
SOURCE DLL: Hannah Ritchie · IEA · lit review · ~3 Wh/query (GPT-4 class) · est. 2024
WATT RUNNER — educational romhack, not a utility bill.