You tap out a quick AI prompt. Simple, right?
Feels effortless. But what if that simple question,
that little interaction, just added maybe more
carbon to our atmosphere than you ever thought?
We're going to dig deep at AI's surprising hidden
costs today. Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today,
we're plunging headfirst into the, well, the
vast and rapidly evolving world of artificial
intelligence. It's everywhere, isn't it? Impacting
everything, often in ways we don't even quite
perceive. We've sifted through quite a stack
of sources for you. Everything from detailed
research papers to the freshest headlines, industry
whispers, all to bring you a clear picture of
what's really happening behind the scenes. Behind
the AI tools we use every single day. Our mission,
it's to unpack the surprising, often unseen costs
of AI, environmental, societal, and at the same
time, look at the exciting new developments and
the major shifts they're already causing. So
to navigate this, we'll first explore those hidden
costs, the environmental and societal ones AI
carries. Then we're going to pivot. We'll look
at the intense geopolitical race for AI dominance
and ask a really profound question. are we as
humans actually outsourcing our brains to these
machines? And finally, we'll do a kind of rapid
fire look. Some of the latest AI innovations,
what they mean for you, and a major traffic shift
online that, well, you probably didn't see coming,
but it's already reshaping things. Okay, let's
unpack this first part. The unseen environmental
footprint of AI. It's truly something we rarely
consider, you know, when we're asking Chad GPT
for a recipe or getting an AI to summarize a
document. Yet that favorite AI you use, the one
that feels so instant and clean, it carries a
significant It's a truly critical point. And
the reason for this lies in the sheer computational
power needed. Just immense. See, each prompt
you enter, it isn't just processed instantly
like a simple search. It gets broken down into
what are called tokens. Tokens, right. Think
of them simply as like the smallest building
blocks of data, individual words, parts of words.
The AI then processes millions, maybe billions
of these tokens. And it all happens in these
massive data centers. And here's the kicker.
Most of these data centers globally are still
powered mainly by, well, traditional sources,
coal and natural gas. Carbon intensive stuff.
Right. To put it in perspective, the complex
computations for even, say, relatively simple
AI tasks, they can use 10 times more power than
a standard Google search. 10 times. Wow. It's
a dramatic difference. And there were these German
researchers who actually went deep on this. They
tested 14 different AI models, you know, for
similar tasks. And their findings were stark.
Reason heavy models like the powerful GPT -4.
They produced up to 50 times more emissions than
smaller, less complex models trying to do the
exact same task. 50. Yeah. It just highlights
this huge energy gap between different AI operations.
Their underlying efficiency varies wildly. So
if we strip it down, what's the core energy issue
with running these powerful AI models beyond
just the sheer demand? Well, the core issue is
their heavy reliance on fossil fuels for power,
driving up emissions significantly. Okay. Here's
where it gets really interesting and, frankly,
a bit unsettling too. Beyond the energy use,
the environmental impact, AI is also fundamentally
reshaping global power dynamics. It feels undeniably
like a new kind of tech gold rush. We're seeing
this intense race, often kind of covert, particularly
between big players like the U .S. and China.
And it's not just about who has the best AI algorithms,
you know, the best software. It's about securing
mining rights, the entire supply chain for all
those essential rare earth minerals, the components
needed to build the actual physical hardware
that powers AI. This isn't just software anymore.
It's about controlling the raw materials, the
bedrock of this whole new tech era, and this
imbalance, this concentration of control over
critical resources. It creates totally new forms
of dependency, potential power struggles between
nations. It's almost like historical resource
wars, but with a digital twist. Absolutely. And
what's truly fascinating here is how all the
major players, like at every single level, are
now deeply intertwined in this new economy. You've
got nations aggressively securing rare earth
deals. These elements are the foundation for
the hardware. Then you have the big tech giants,
OpenAI, Google, Meta. They're locked in these
fierce battles for market dominance. Who built
the best models? Who gets the users? Below them.
Hardware titans like NVIDIA, they basically control
the entire underlying infrastructure. They're
the kingmakers. Right, the gatekeepers. Without
their chips, the AI just doesn't run. And maybe
surprisingly for many, mining firms now hold
critical keys to the whole AI kingdom because
they control these fundamental finite resources.
But if we connect this to the bigger sort of
human picture, this whole trend raises an even
more profound question for us. For humanity,
are we in essence outsourcing our brains? Think
about it. If AI gets increasingly capable of
handling every email, drafting every answer,
making every decision, from simple scheduling
to complex strategic choices, where do humans
fit in? There's a very real risk we could drift
towards total AI reliance. And in doing so, maybe
lose our cognitive edge, maybe even forget how
to think critically. Innovate. solve problems
on our own. It could lead us into a kind of brave
new world of digital comfort. AI handles everything
and people just become passive consumers of AI
generated reality. It's a fundamental shift to
what it means to be human in this AI driven world.
You know, I still wrestle with prompt drift myself
sometimes where you find your own thought process
kind of subtly shifting to accommodate how an
AI thinks or how best to phrase a query for it.
Yeah, you know what you mean. This idea of losing
our cognitive edge, of truly outsourcing our
brains to AI, feels really close sometimes. It's
a constant tension, isn't it, between the undeniable
convenience and, well, the need to keep our own
mental muscles sharp. Independent thought. Given
those powerful trends and your own experience
there, how do we consciously balance AI's convenience
with, well... maintaining human critical thinking.
It requires actively questioning AI, not just
blindly delegating and really nurturing our own
cognitive skills. Okay, shifting gears now, let's
talk about some recent, maybe surprising developments.
Fascinating applications of AI that have been
making waves shows just how fast this field is
moving. On the legal front, there's been some
interesting drama. OpenAI actually pulled its
massive $6 .5 billion bromance promo deal with
Joni Ive. Oh yeah, the Apple designer guy. Exactly.
Legendary designer, why pull it? Because a court
smacked it down over the name IO. Another AI
startup, much smaller, called IYO, claimed it
owned the IO name, led to this unexpected reversal.
Wow. Shows even the giants aren't immune to IP
battles in this space. It moves so fast. Indeed.
And what's really fascinating is how AI is enabling
new levels of creation efficiency. Yeah. Often
in unexpected places. Take Duolingo, for instance.
They didn't just add a chess course. They built
an entire comprehensive chess curriculum using
only two human experts and one AI tool called
Cursor. That's two people. Two people. And the
AI, that's AI truly playing like 4D chess in
terms of content generation. while most folks
are still just figuring out basic tromps. Right.
And it really highlights AI's profound capabilities
in generating complex, structured content with
minimal human oversight. And for us users, the
everyday applications are becoming incredibly
powerful. You can now create short videos just
by using simple words on platforms like X. You
just tag it at Ask Perplexity with a prompt.
I saw some of those. Pretty wild stuff. Yeah,
users are submitting some truly creative things.
It's cool to see that instant visual output from
text. And it's fascinating how companies like
Adobe are already stepping into this new reality.
They now have an LLM optimizer, that's large
language model optimizer, designed to help websites
rank not just on Google, but on these new AI
platforms, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude. It really
hammers home that AI traffic is fast becoming
the new prime real estate, the new gold rush
for digital brands. And speaking of optimizing
these models. Yeah. There's been this massive
ongoing discussion, kind of a brain fuel thing
shared on X, where folks have been compiling
and sharing their wildest and coolest model context
protocol setups. MCPs? MCPs, okay. What's that
simply? Think of them just as specific configurations
or detailed instructions users apply to make
AI models perform drastically better or differently
for a specific task. Oh, okay. It's like sharing
secret recipes for AI optimization, pushing the
boundaries of what these models can do just by
tweaking how you talk to them. And on the financial
front, the news is absolutely huge, signals massive
investor confidence. Miramarati's new AI startup,
Thinking Machines Lab, just raised an astounding
$2 billion. $2 billion. Seed round. At a $10
billion valuation. And what's wild is this happened
only six months after launch. Six months. Incredible.
Backed by A16za, the big VC firm, it's officially
the biggest seed round. ever in tech startup
history. Wow. That kind of money so early on
just speaks volumes about the perceived future
here. So what does this flurry of activity, legal
fights, new tools, this massive funding, what
does it really reveal about AI's current market?
It shows rapid innovation, fierce competition,
and just enormous investment betting big on future
dominance. And staying on that theme of rapid
developments, what's next? There are some quick
hits worth mentioning. They paint a clear picture
of AI's pervasive impact. We're hearing whispers.
Apple might be looking to acquire perplexity
AI. Yeah. Aiming to dramatically improve Siri,
bolster its own AI search could be a huge move
for Apple. On the more practical side, we're
seeing common pitfalls as businesses adopt AI.
There are at least four widely recognized mistakes
people make when using AI in customer service.
It's not just plug and play. Exactly. It highlights
it's not that simple. And maybe surprisingly,
maybe not, OpenAI is reportedly quite shocked
by how much people are trusting chat GPT. Too
much trust. Maybe implying the trust is a little
too high right now, given where the tech actually
is. And then looking a bit more future forward,
tangible stuff, OpenAI is teaming up with Figure
AI to create humanoid robots. Target is 2026
for them to be ready and functional. Humanoid
robots. Wow. AI brains in physical walking forms.
Just a couple of years away. And while we're
looking at humanoid robots in the future, some
even more immediate profound shifts are happening
right now in how we use the internet, what platforms
dominate our lives. Which brings us right to
the latest AI chart data. Shows a truly major
shift in online behavior. It reveals that ChatGPT
has now officially beaten X what most of us still
call Twitter. Still Twitter for me, yeah. In
global traffic, by over 1 billion visits in May
2025. A billion visits difference. That's huge.
Massive. Looking at the numbers, ChatGPT pulled
in, get this, 5 .49 billion visits in May, up
6 .8 % from April. Meanwhile, X had 4 .39 billion
visits, up just 1 .1%. The growth difference.
Yeah, ChatGPT first passed X back in April and
just kept pulling ahead, accelerating. The implication
here truly is profound. ChatGPT is now the fifth
most visited site in the world. Fifth. It's clearly
being embraced as a get stuff done tool, a utility.
Right. While X sits in sixth place globally.
To keep it in scale, giants like Google still
lead, right? 105 billion visits, YouTube, 47
billion. They're still way out there. Different
league. But ChatGPT is rapidly becoming this
fundamental utility tool like Google search,
like Excel, but smarter, more interactive, conversational.
We're seeing a shift where more people are opening
ChatGPT before they check social media, before
a news site. Really? That's the flow now. It
seems to be heading that way. It suggests chat
GPT could soon become the primary tab for learning,
working, problem solving for huge numbers of
people, which means X risks becoming more niche.
You know, for debates, memes, breaking news.
Not a must -have daily utility. Right. Unless
it reinvented self -haft, that traffic gap is
only going to widen. The shift will become even
more pronounced. Whoa. Imagine scaling that utility.
If ChatGPT keeps going like this, imagine it
handling a billion unique queries a day, truly
integrating into every single aspect of our digital
lives. That future is, well, it's already taking
shape right now. Considering this rapid shift,
what's the single biggest implication of ChatGPT
evolving from just a popular tool to an indispensable
daily utility for so many? It fundamentally redefines
information discovery and task completion, impacting
nearly all digital platforms and online habits.
We've covered a significant amount today, haven't
we? Traversing this complex landscape of artificial
intelligence. It's undeniably clear AI is far
more than just a convenient new tool. It's this
complex, rapidly evolving force. It comes with
substantial, often hidden environmental costs.
We saw that. It's actively reshaping geopolitical
dynamics. And perhaps most profoundly, it's affecting
how we, as humans, think. how we learn, how we
interact with the world. We've witnessed its
incredibly rapid integration into our daily lives,
fundamentally changing how we access information,
use technology across almost every domain. Yeah,
the core message here, I think, is that a comprehensive
understanding of AI is crucial. It's immense
power, it's transformative potential, but also
its inherent costs, the crucial ethical societal
considerations. Understanding all that is absolutely
essential for navigating our future effectively.
We are witnessing a fundamental paradigm shift.
AI moving from being this niche, specialized
tool to becoming a fundamental utility, as indispensable
maybe as electricity or the internet itself.
And that brings both immense challenges, sustainability,
cognitive impact, and of course, unprecedented
opportunities for humanity. We've covered a lot
today. AI's hidden costs, its rapidly expanding
influence, delving into its environmental impact,
its role in global power dynamics, its surprising
effect on our daily digital habits. We really
invite you to consider these multifaceted aspects
as you continue to interact with AI in your own
life. And this whole discussion, it really raises
an important question, doesn't it? Are we consciously,
proactively designing the future of human -AI
collaboration? Or are we just kind of letting
it happen to us? Thank you for joining us on
this deep dive. We'll see you next time. Outero
Music.