This Week in GTM [Friday, September 20, 2024]

‍A bottle of water per email: the hidden environmental costs of using AI chatbots
Smart reporting by The Washington Post on the environmental cost of AI chatbots. They found that around a quarter of Americans have used ChatGPT since its 2022 launch, and each query has an environmental tax. Servers that power AI chatbots like ChatGPT generate heat, requiring significant water and electricity for cooling. A single 100-word email generated by GPT-4 uses about 519 milliliters of water, and when scaled up to millions of users, this consumption adds up, equaling the water used by Rhode Island households in 1.5 days over a year.

Generative AI promised limitless creation—instead, it’s all about summarization 
In 2022, “AI summarization” appeared in 33 earnings calls, according to data provider AlphaSense.

Throughout 2023 and the first half of 2024, AI summarization was touted in 289 calls and appeared in 1,075 corporate press releases. We’ve read the studies—or summaries of them—about the addictive properties of digital engagement. Teens are now spending up to nine hours a day transfixed by pixels. The goal of all these efficiencies is to give us more time to scroll through even more content. Since we tend to cut down more complex, meaningful content, we end up using our extra time consuming superficial, less fulfilling material.

Paid Parental Leave Experience for Women in Corporate America
Parentaly surveyed over 3,000 working mothers about their parental leave experiences. The study highlights key insights and areas for improvement in parental leave policies.