This project explores the hidden environmental cost of everyday AI use. While prompts feel instant, each interaction consumes energy and produces carbon emissions. Using “tokens” as a unit, it traces how text input translates into energy use.

The experience has two stages: in the input stage, users must generate physical effort to reveal an AI response, highlighting that digital systems are not weightless. In the output stage, the response is paired with a visualization of its energy and carbon cost. Inspired by thermodynamics, the project uses “noise” to represent the shift from raw energy to structured information, making invisible impacts more tangible.

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