Person
Andy Masley
Andy Masley directs Effective Altruism DC and writes a blog best known for patient, numerate myth-busting about AI's environmental footprint — the ChatGPT water and energy questions, and the data-centre backlash — always with the working shown and the comparisons made fair.
Commentary by Andy Masley
From the commentary rail — every link leaves the site for the original piece.
- 30 September 2026 · Andy MasleyWhy I believe current AI models can really think and understand - Part 1 of 2How the human mind is different from our conception of it
- 19 September 2026 · Andy MasleyDon’t treat surface-level metaphors about AI as if they describe fundamental realityDebates about whether AI is a “tool” or whether it’s wrong to “anthropomorphize” it often seem confused about what reality is made of
- 1 September 2026 · Andy MasleyAI safety and the data center backlashPlanting a flag for AI safety as a place where we won’t abjectly bullshit you
- 25 August 2026 · Andy MasleyI think the data center backlash is mostly about data centersIt’s probably not your ideological thing, or mine. It’s about object-level claims about how data centers impact the communities where they’re built, many of which are wrong.
- 18 August 2026 · Andy MasleyThinking about other industries like we think about data centers shows how impoverished the debate isClumsy, arbitrary environmental ideas ignore the incredible complexity of the systems modern society depends on
- 8 August 2026 · Andy MasleyI'm very skeptical that China has played a meaningful role in the US data center backlashThe evidence we have is pretty weak
- 3 July 2026 · Andy MasleyAI art as curationAsking whether AI art involves real creativity mostly misses what's interesting about it
- 21 June 2026 · Andy MasleyWhat does it mean for AI to be democratic?Some pushback on a specific fuzzy idea with some ominous implications
- 6 June 2026 · Andy MasleyA simple trick to fix the data center debateRemove the status quo bias by asking "would we spend this much in tax revenue to avoid the externalities of the data center?"
- 4 June 2026 · Andy MasleyWhy I think panic about local impacts of data centers is just a panicA request for counterexamples
- 20 May 2026 · Andy MasleyA history of the data center panic - part 1The creation of common wisdom pre-ChatGPT
- 19 May 2026 · Andy MasleyA crash course on US air pollutionData centers and air pollution - part 1
- 11 May 2026 · Andy MasleyLet's not compare data center heat exhaust to nuclear bombsWhy dropping hundreds of nuclear bombs on Washington DC every day is pretty normal
- 2 May 2026 · Andy MasleyData center land use issues are fakeWe have plenty of land, data centers provide more revenue per unit area than any other building, and we should have way less farmland
- 19 April 2026 · Andy MasleyContra Benn Jordan, data center (and all) sub-audible infrasound issues are fakeOne of the most popular videos ever made about data centers is a complete moment-by-moment disaster
- 12 April 2026 · Andy MasleyTraining AI models doesn't emit that muchIf we just make reasonable comparisons instead of crazy ones
- 31 March 2026 · Andy MasleyData centers' heat exhaust is not raising the land temperature around where they're builtA terrible paper and even worse interpretation is threatening to become common wisdom
- 8 December 2025 · Andy MasleyAI can obviously create new knowledgeBut maybe not new concepts
- 16 November 2025 · Andy MasleyEmpire of AI is wildly misleading about AI water useAnd the media environment that didn't catch this is getting this issue wrong
- 12 November 2025 · Andy MasleyA short summary of my argument that using ChatGPT isn't bad for the environmentTo share with anyone still worried
- 11 November 2025 · Andy MasleyThe lump of cognition fallacyThe extended mind as the advance of civilization
- 8 November 2025 · Andy MasleyIt's much easier to hold computers accountable than it is to hold humans accountableComputers live in a totalitarian surveillance state
- 7 November 2025 · Andy MasleyData centers and low social trustWhy I was so compelled to post a lot about data centers
- 4 November 2025 · Andy MasleyAn armchair diagnosis of the chatbot moral panicIt's... status!
- 28 October 2025 · Andy MasleyAI and Folk Cartesianism - Part 2: Problems for CartesianismThe theater is empty, the screen is in another room
- 27 October 2025 · Andy MasleyAI and Folk Cartesianism - Part 1: Defining the ProblemWhy I'm scared of linear algebra
- 18 October 2025 · Andy MasleyRequests for journalists covering AI and the environmentAlways aim to give your reader a full picture of the environmental issues a community and the world is facing
- 15 October 2025 · Andy MasleyA few meta points on my posts on AI and the environmentSome quick notes on what I'm doing
- 13 October 2025 · Andy MasleySlop implies capabilityIf the current paradigm can produce convincing, satisfying slop, it can also be useful
- 11 October 2025 · Andy MasleyThe AI water issue is fakeOn the national, local, and personal level
- 10 October 2025 · Andy MasleyData centers & electricity - part 1: as of 2025 they haven't raised national pricesYet, anyway, but they raised local costs in specific places like NOVA
- 8 October 2025 · Andy MasleyWhat a data center isA building-sized computer, and the most efficient type of building we've ever created
- 28 September 2025 · Andy MasleyMore Perfect Union videos are wildly deceptive on data center water useThey're misinforming their huge audience and making the data center debate much worse
- 8 September 2025 · Andy MasleyWhat's the full "hidden" climate cost of a ChatGPT prompt?It's so tiny, and if we include "all the hidden costs" it might actually be a negative number
- 6 September 2025 · Andy MasleyDo data centers only seem bad for the climate because we can see them?Most of your climate impacts are invisible
- 2 September 2025 · Andy MasleyJevons' Paradox is good sometimesIt might be good news for AI and the climate
- 30 August 2025 · Andy MasleyMapping the AI & environment debateAnd clarifying what I believe
- 29 August 2025 · Andy MasleyThe core simple reason I think AI is valuableWhy I don't think every Watt-hour or liter we spend on AI is wasted
- 24 August 2025 · Andy MasleyAn example of what I consider a misleading article about AI and the environmentJust show the numbers!
- 13 August 2025 · Andy MasleyContra the UK government, please don't delete your old photos and emails to save waterYou'd need to delete hundreds of billions of emails to save as much water as fixing your toilet
- 24 June 2025 · Andy MasleyAI can be bad without being uselessA common way conversations get tripped up
- 24 June 2025 · Andy MasleyMy "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" testFor AI criticism and everything else
- 14 June 2025 · Andy MasleyComputing is efficientThe reason using ChatGPT isn't bad for the environment is that it's a computer program
- 26 May 2025 · Andy MasleyAll the ways I want the AI debate to be betterGround truths, useful rules, ideas I'd like taken seriously, and a rant
- 21 May 2025 · Andy MasleyReactions to MIT Technology Review's report on AI and the environmentInteresting useful facts, and some framing I think is super misleading
- 16 May 2025 · Andy MasleyThings I got wrong in my ChatGPT/environment postsLogging the errors
- 11 May 2025 · Andy MasleyWhy goofy AI art almost never seems wasteful to meEnvironmentalism is important, but shouldn't be used to squash pluralism
- 8 May 2025 · Andy MasleyReplies to criticisms of my posts on ChatGPT & the environmentWhy I used 3 Wh, and why I don't say "Every Watt-hour matters"
- 28 April 2025 · Andy MasleyUsing ChatGPT is not bad for the environment - a cheat sheetThe numbers clearly show that discouraging people from using chatbots is a pointless distraction for the climate movement
- 22 April 2025 · Andy MasleyChatGPT on the lives of factory farmed pigsAn example of deep research
- 7 April 2025 · Andy MasleyHow I use AILLMs in everyday life and work
- 20 March 2025 · Andy MasleyA defense of AI artIt's not just slop, it's not stolen, it's not bad for the environment, and we should want art to be easy to make
- 11 February 2025 · Andy MasleyIdeas from philosophy I use to think about AIPhysicalism, functionalism, and lots of Quine
- 13 January 2025 · Andy MasleyUsing ChatGPT is not bad for the environmentAnd a plea to think seriously about climate change without getting distracted