💡 Premium Supporter recap + fact-based optimistic news
💖 Risk of dying from cardiovascular disease has decreased by 75%. 🐠 Coral believed extinct rediscovered. 📉 China's CO2 emissions continue to decline.
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🔄 The power of narratives
It has stuck as a truth, even though it isn’t true: That AI uses massive amounts of energy.
I believed it myself for a while and thought generative AI was especially energy-intensive. When asked about it in lectures, I said so—though I also pointed out that it depended on how the electricity was produced and that it was worth it.
But I was wrong. Generative AI is not especially energy-intensive. Several studies have shown this, and this week another one came out, which we write about here. A typical instruction (a prompt) in Google’s Gemini uses 0.24 watt-hours.
The problem is that for most people, that number means absolutely nothing. Is it a lot or a little? It equals nine seconds of TV watching. So even if you chat non-stop with Gemini, you’ll use less electricity than if you were watching TV.
So how come this spreads as if it’s true, even showing up in scientific papers? There are several explanations, and I go deeper into them in a chapter of my upcoming book. But in short, it’s a narrative that has taken hold. Something gets repeated simply because it’s repeated. Everyone hears it, many repeat it, and then people assume it must be true—because everyone says so.
Back to normal pace
After a few weeks of half-speed on news and newsletters, I’m now back at normal tempo again. That means daily news and a weekly newsletter.
So my Premium Supporter articles are also back as usual. This week about the dumbest tech debate of the summer: The one about the Swedish Prime Minister’s AI use.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
💡 Premium Supporter content
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🤦♂️ Embarrassing criticism of the Swedish Prime Minister’s AI use (but justified against the Deputy PM)
I read their criticism with the same mix of shame and amusement as when someone drunkenly grabs the karaoke mic and belts out off-key—yet with full confidence.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
📉 China's CO2 emissions continue to decline – the peak may already have been passed
China's carbon dioxide emissions fell by one percent during the first half of 2025 and continue the downward trend that began in March 2024. The declining trend opens the possibility that China's emissions may already have reached their peak, years before the "before 2030" target.
💖 Risk of dying from cardiovascular disease has decreased by 75% since 1950
Medical advances in drugs, surgery and emergency care have significantly improved survival. Public health efforts have reduced risk factors such as smoking and high cholesterol.
🐠 Coral believed extinct rediscovered after 24 years in Galápagos
Scientists have rediscovered over 250 healthy colonies of the coral species Rhizopsammia wellingtoni in waters around the Galápagos Islands. The coral had not been observed by researchers since 2000 and was classified as critically endangered and possibly extinct in 2007.
📉 Solar power with batteries became 22 percent cheaper in one year
The cost of solar power with batteries dropped 22 percent during 2024 and 43 percent since 2019. Solar power with batteries now costs around 100 dollars per megawatt hour in sunny cities, which is cheaper than coal and nuclear power.
🚗 Electric cars sold at record pace globally in 2025
Global sales of electric vehicles reach nearly 22 million cars in 2025, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. Electric vehicles will account for a quarter of all passenger cars sold globally this year.
🔁 AI-trained poet creates infinite poem that rewrites itself every hour
Artist Sasha Stiles has created an infinite poem generated by artificial intelligence that rewrites itself every 60 minutes. The project A LIVING POEM uses a language model trained on artworks from MoMA's collections to continuously create new texts.
🎙️ AI talk or master class?
I'm giving a lot of talks and master classes on AI in several different countries. Happy to come to your organization.
Learn more at mathiassundin.org.
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