this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Ecosia
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They're saying they're powering it with their 100% renewable power plants – but neglect to mention that they could have kept selling the energy to offset a dirty plant elsewhere and make the overall grid cleaner. Unless the grid is all renewable (like in Iceland), deploying AI is just waste either way.
What you're saying is that if Ecosia didn't have AI, then people would simply not use AI. However, lot's of people uses AI and if Ecosia can do that greener than other AI players, then I'm all in for it. For the people that don't want to use it in Ecosia, it can be turned it off.
Ecosia is still a relatively small player in the search space and if they want to attract more users, they need to have the same or better features than the competition and that includes AI. More Ecosia users means more money for Ecosia to invest in planting trees and building out more green energy.
I think Ecosia's userbase is mostly environmentally conscious and knows that AI is harmful and avoids it. Maybe make it opt-in or create a survey to determine if it's worth it to train a model?
I had the same thought. It's a net negative impact. I'm sure their user base would rather have no A.I. and put that green energy towards something else. Maybe if enough people reach out to them via the email in the post, they will change their minds?