Google published a report that for the first time provides per-query estimates of the resource costs of prompts to its Gemini artificial intelligence apps. The company said the median prompt consumes 0.24 watt-hours of electricity, roughly the energy used by a standard microwave for about one second. Google also provided average estimates for water consumption, about five drops per query, and for associated carbon emissions. The report includes detailed information on how the company calculated its figures and represents the most transparent per-prompt disclosure yet from a major tech firm, answering questions researchers raised after earlier reporting by MIT Technology Review found no such per-query data from leading companies.
Separately, the newsletter includes a first-person account from a writer who uploaded a DNA profile to the private genealogical database FamilyTreeDNA and consented to police searches of the data. The article recounts how forensic investigative genetic genealogy, or FIGG, helped identify the Golden State Killer in 2018 by matching relatives and building family trees, and notes that the technique has since helped solve hundreds of murders and sexual assaults. The author says the personal motive for sharing DNA was to challenge privacy concerns about genetic data and to provoke debate about how sacred or private DNA should be, and the piece originally appeared in the Checkup biotech newsletter.
The edition also highlights the emergence of new formats and debates in research and sport driven by artificial intelligence. An October conference, Agents4Science, will feature work researched, written and reviewed primarily by artificial intelligence and presented via text-to-speech, a model that some scientists applaud for discovery potential and others criticize for errors and limiting opportunities. The newsletter’s curated must-reads cover topics from high-level industry moves to policy and geopolitics, including reported talks between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg about OpenAI, AI companies seeking real-world data, a state-backed Russian messenger app being preinstalled on phones, debates over funding for HIV programs, and the introduction of artificial intelligence judging at the 2023 gymnastics world championships, with advocates pointing to fairness and critics warning about loss of narrative judgment.
