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Carbon intensity

As explained in The AI Pocket Book

The amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity consumed, used here to compare environmental impact.

Carbon intensity is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity consumed. Here, it is used to compare the environmental impact of AI use and training, but the surrounding evidence warns that energy and emissions numbers are often messy and inconsistently reported. section 6.9 section 6.9

Simple comparison

One table converts AI electricity use into equivalent CO2 emissions and then into petrol-car mileage, showing how emissions can be compared across different kinds of activity.

How The AI Pocket Book covers it

How deep it goes
Defines the metric and illustrates it with converted examples, but does not develop a formal emissions methodology.
Examples
Uses text generation, image generation, household electricity, and petrol-car equivalents.
What it assumes
Assumes basic familiarity with electricity use and carbon dioxide emissions, and explains the metric from zero.
What you can do after
Evaluate environmental impact across electricity use and emissions estimates.
How it connects
Connects electricity consumption, CO2 emissions, and AI resource consumption.
Cover of The AI Pocket Book
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Related concepts

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of The AI Pocket Book. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.