What is the true price of AI?
We need an honest discussion about the hidden price of AI - and what we really get for that. Join the discussion at one of our events, use our tools and become part of the community.
250
prompts emit 1kg of CO² and consume 8.8l of fresh water. 30x more emitted by complex reasoning models and 150x to 700x more in individual cases while for agentic cases it us unpreditably high.
Read more about the Ecological Price here (soon).
70.000
people in India were working in 2021 in data annotation, which is the crucial backbone of todays AI models. Many of tese so called "ghost workers" are facing mental trauma from watching hours of abusive content.
Read more about the Societal Price here (soon).
17%
worse did students perform when AI was taken from them after they used it for the same tasks. This phenomenon is called "de-skilling" and can obsserved among various professions and professional levels.
Read more about the Individual Price here (soon).
17B
dollar cashburn does OpenAI expect in 2026. The current prices for Gen AI are highly subsidized. Significantly higher prices need to be expected, as we already can see in rising token prices for newer models.
Read more about the Economical Price here (soon).
250 text prompts emit 1kg of CO² which costs us 15kg of glacier ice
This image is from one of my mountaineering tours: Going to the mountains is always a powerful reminder of the climate crisis. The permafrost is thawing, mountainsides are collapsing, and glaciers are shrinking by meters every year. AI is not the only cause, but right now it is making things worse.
And this is only one part of the external price of AI. The current growth of generative AI is creating massive ecological and societal problems and inequalities, and someone has to pay for them: others, and we ourselves, now or in the future.
On top of that comes an economic price that most people still underestimate: the true costs of AI we have to expect in the coming years, and the hard-to-control business risk of losing sovereignty by relying on Big Tech’s frontier models.
This doesn’t mean we should reject AI altogether. But we need to talk now about what responsible use of AI looks like. What do we use it for? Which models do we use? How do we use it? And when do we decide not to use it?
That’s why we started The True Price of AI.
AI is not cheap
Our Mission
The true price of AI is a non-profit iniative founded to drive an honest discussion about the different price tags of AI in context of the true value of it's outputs and how we can get to a more responsible use of AI.
The true price of AI was founded by Thorsten Jonas to provide a space for discussion, for sharing, for getting together and for providing tools and ideas how to get to a more responsible use of AI.
We are not denying AI. Instead we want to drive conversations about AI, about its externalized price as well as what we really get from it. AI can be a powerful tool - but it is not the right solution for everything and whatever we do with it, we should consider who is paying the real price for it - and if it is worth it.
We act in different ways to work towards our mission:
Events:
Designed to bring together people who are interested in learning and discussing about the true price of AI. Next Events.
Resources & Tools:
We develop tools and collect resources that we provide to the community. You can check out the "Responsible AI Canvas" here.
Talks, Workshops and Trainings:
We offer talks, workshops and trainings for organisations of all kinds. Please get in touch to learn more about our formats here.
Let's get together to learn, share and discuss
Events
Sign up our newsletter and get informed about our next events:
We believe in open and honest discussions. Therefore our events are open spaces to learn, share and discuss. Usually our events are a mix of lightning talks, a discussion and a practical micro workshop part. We want to create a room for discussion and hands-on conversation.
We are planning new events constantly - we are focussing on local events at the moment, but plan to do an online version as well in the future. If there is no event in your city planned, sign up our newsletter and get informed abptu new events.
Our events are often done in cooperation with the SUX Network. But we are also open to cooperate with other orgaizatins to bring "True price of AI to more cities. So if you are interested in helping us to bring an event to your city, please get in touch here.
The True Price of AI in your inbox every month.
Be the first to know about new events, learn more about the true price of AI, get new tools and resources or get Thorsten monthly reflection about the current state of AI right to your inbox via our Newsletter.
Evaluate your AI Use Case
Responsible AI Canvas
Authors: Anna Forlati & Thorsten Jonas
Evaluate an AI use case by understanding the negative and positive Impacts as well as Business Risks and Oportunities, to make an informed decision if an use-case is an AI use-case or not.
Sustainable UX in Practice
Responsible AI Canvas
Authors: Anna Forlati & Thorsten Jonas
Evaluate an AI use case by understanding the negative and positive Impacts as well as Business Risks and Oportunities, to make an informed decision if an use-case is an AI use-case or not.
Inspiration, Wake-Up Call or Concrete Solutions
For your Organization or Event
You want to bring the True Price of AI to your organization, event or university? We offer different formats like workshops, lightning talks or trainings to understand and evaluate the true price of AI as well as develop ideas how to use AI responsibly. Please get in touch and we are happy to share our options.
Inspiration, Wake-Up Call or Concrete Solutions
For your Organization or Event
You want to bring the True Price of AI to your organization, event or university? We offer different formats like workshops, lightning talks or trainings to understand and evaluate the true price of AI as well as develop ideas how to use AI responsibly. Please get in touch and we are happy to share our options.
