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Whenever I read discourse on AI energy/water use that focuses on the "median query," I can't help but feel misled. Coding agents like Claude Code send hundreds of longer-than-median queries every session, and I run dozens of sessions a day. On my blog: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01...

Lino Le Van

@linolevan.com

cc @andymasley.bsky.social @simonwillison.net might be interesting for you guys

20/1/26, 5:44 pm0 reposts0 likes

Andy Masley

@andymasley.bsky.social

20 Jan

(1/2) AI's very fast-moving and coding agents didn't exist when I started. I can only really cover so much at once. I wish people saying "it's deceptive to not also cover X" would consider just how many individual angles you need to cover.

Andy Masley

@andymasley.bsky.social

20 Jan

(2/2) I would be a little surprised if the audience talking about AI and the environment were also regularly using coding agents, they've seemed pretty distinct.

Andy Masley

@andymasley.bsky.social

20 Jan

At the point of coding agents, a lot of people have to start to make comparisons between the value they're getting out of AI vs other things. If I had a dishwasher that could do what Claude Code could do in a day, I'd probably run it once a day without feeling bad about its environment impact

Lino Le Van

@linolevan.com

20 Jan

Thanks for the response! Not trying to say at all that "you didn't cover X", I really love your posts and wanted to hear your take. I think a fairer comparison for coding agents would be "how many human hours would it take to do the same and how much water/energy would that have required"

Simon P. Couch

@simonpcouch.com

20 Jan

Heard on all of your points, didn't mean to insinuate in the OP that any of your work here is misleading! My point was re: e.g. the Gemini team's paper and/or Sam Altman's blog post that mention very specific estimates for a poorly defined 'median query', but that could have been clearer.