Is AI sustainable?
Does an AI prompt really use a bottle of water? We look at where the claim came from, newer data on AI water and energy use, and why better environmental reporting matters.
A line often quoted is that an AI prompt uses a bottle of water. This stems from a 2023 paper that estimated training GPT3 in Microsoft US data centres could evaporate 700,000 litres of freshwater. The same paper projected global AI-related water withdrawal could reach approximately 4.2–6.6 billion cubic metres by 2027.
In 2025 Google reported that its median Gemini text prompt model used approximately 0.24 Wh electricity, 0.03 g CO₂e and 0.26 mL direct cooling water. A later independent academic analysis expanded Google's accounting boundary to include estimated water consumed in electricity generation, raising the estimate from 0.26 mL to approximately 0.725 mL per median prompt.
Google compares the electricity used by its median prompt, 0.24 Wh, to less than nine seconds of television.
So, there is your bottle of water. But, is it the same bottle of water we started with?
How thirsty is AI? It depends on what, and how, you measure.
Can you avoid AI?
No, and yes-ish.
You can absolutely choose not to use generative-AI tools, but AI is increasingly embedded in other digital services.
For example in banking, email, games, phones, computers, security and many of the other digital services we use.
What does this have to do with streetwear?
It’s a question of sustainability. And reporting. AI is now firmly embedded across industries; fashion is no exception. From fake prom dresses to game-changing 3D design software, to the changing way we shop.
Sustainability, transparency and reporting are currently changing across the fashion industry. The EU, UK and other jurisdictions are developing and introducing measures aimed at greater environmental and supply-chain transparency.
Sustainability has been at the core of everything I have built from the start. There are gaps in our current AI environmental impact measuring, reporting and transparency. Until those are ironed out, we don’t have a clear picture.
While this isn't currently a requirement, and may never be, our global sustainable journey is trying to start, albeit through smoke and fire. Understanding the impact of what we do is as big a part of that as anything.
Is using AI sustainable or environmentally harmful?
If electricity per prompt is the metric we're using, Google's comparison puts it at less than nine seconds of TV. But electricity isn't the only metric.
Using AI can look about as environmentally dramatic as watching a few seconds of TV. Change the metric, and the picture changes.
AI is not going away
I hope we see none of the adverse AI futures we have been warned about. I fear we’ll see at least some of them. I'm not convinced that everyone in power has a vested interest in outcomes beyond their own. I'm not an optimist.
I, perhaps foolishly, hope that AI can help fix some of our biggest problems.
Until then, we need better data than water bottles and seconds of TV.
Sources
Li et al. (2023). “Making AI Less ‘Thirsty’: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models”
Google (2025). “Measuring the environmental impact of AI inference”
“The Hidden Thirst of AI: A Framework for Estimating Direct, Indirect, and Scarcity-Adjusted Freshwater Consumption per LLM Query” (2026)
The Canis Game
What exactly is The Canis? After days of trying to define the world I was building, I finally realised the answer was staring me in the face. This behind-the-scenes journal explores the game, the comics, the cards, AI, and a painting from my teens that somehow predicted it all.
It’s hard to articulate how many things I hold in my head on any given day. Building this game out is fun and terrifying in equal measure. I’m sure you can guess why. But in case you can’t, its fun because I get to play for a significant portion of my time, making up star maggots and mapping their evolution.
It’s terrifying because it’s early. Literally no one but me asked for this.
Kinda rule number one of business.
I have a habit of approaching things from a different angle.
It is so actively in development, that I have been asking myself the question, what is ‘The Canis’, is it a world, a universe? Yes me, the builder of it. This has been going on for days.
And only just landed on the right words, roughly sixty seconds ago.
It’s a game. Duh.
Really, I blame my to do list. It wraps around the planet at this point.
Designing the cards
I can’t be an expert in everything and believe me, I am not. I have enough background to build this without feinting each day, but I have gaps.
One rather amusing one, was realising how integrated the cards and comics are. To anyone who has been building games for centuries, I salute you. It was only when I sat down to write the comic that I realised I had to design the cards first.
We haven’t even got to the art yet.
The art
While recording for socials this week, I have been talking about AI. Love or hate it, its here. I only use my own art to generate our AI reels.
It’s how I can test personalities, ideas, concepts, styles, formats without spending 14 weeks trapped in an art cycle that I can’t maintain.
I draw all the hoodie designs, characters, and worlds. I am drawing all the comics, cards and I write the blog, my website and my world. This is not an AI world.
It seems like it has been living in my head a very long time; I found a photo of an old painting I did, and thematically, it’s eery how it is kinda all there without it knowing what it was yet. This was painted sometime in the 2000s.
Eyeballs, weird trees, random entity. That giant sun. Spooky.
Now, I started this all with art from my teens, but finding this photo with all those elements was nuts. This painting has now inspired another world and characters.
I use AI to help research, SEO, editing, project management, and images.
I dream of the day that I can hire writers and artist etc.
The thing that bothers me most about AI, is sustainability. With it being the backbone of everything I build, coupled with no data and warranted suspicion, it remains to be seen how we deal with that, globally as well as individually. This blog is not long enough for the rest of the arguments so moving on.
A painting (and photo) from the 2000s. Looking back, it's strange how many themes that became The Canis were already there.
When are the comics coming?
Now-now. Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing progress and taking you along for the ride.
And the cards?
Just-now.
Official terminology…
It’s happening now. I have already started. The world is coherent, the game is playable, the system is working, the world is growing faster than I can keep up. I just need to build all the other parts you can play with.
No pressure. When I start licking the chalk I will let you know.