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They integrated AI chat which is using OpenAI technology. So they’re paying for ChatGPT API instead of spending this money on trees? And doesn’t running generative AI consume a lot of electricity?
Running AI doesn’t - training an AI is where the real power hungry stuff happens
We have estimated the carbon footprint of our AI chatbot and according to our first estimates it does not significantly increase the overall carbon footprint of Ecosia. The estimate takes into account that Ecosia searches are already 200% carbon negative,as we produce twice as much energy as is consumed by our search engine. We are currently working with two universities to refine our carbon footprint assessment.
Unfortunately the more important issue is that the leading language AI model providers are still not transparent about the energy consumption of their models, so without this clarity we can only make rough estimations of our impact. We will continue to monitor our energy usage and urge leading AI companies to do the same and be transparent about their impact.
(https://ecosia.helpscoutdocs.com/article/534-ecosia-chat-ai)
I am not against it. I don’t want to miss out on AI to support this search engine. It’s quite helpful to me, and I assume many others. I think this search engine should compete with other search engines so that more users use it. I am already a fan of their Ecosia Chat; the interface is fast and the responses are even faster. Bing Chat is just awful; it’s slow both in terms of interface and text generation
Can we… see them?
The big turning point came in 2018 when I signed a legally binding commitment to ensure that Ecosia could never be sold and that 100% of our profits would always go to the planet. Today, your searches enable us to work with partners to plant and protect 1,250 species of trees across 95,000 locations globally.
Keywords plant and protect. Basically a papermill can plant trees to harvest 20 years later and in the meantime sell carbon offsets for 19 years then harvest and replant.
Can’t say for sure they’re doing it, but from what I hear just about every tree is eligible for a “carbon offset” and some companies abuse it by saying “this is our tree” as long as it’s not cut down within x months and use it as a carbon offset or a “protected tree.”
Ecosia doesn’t sell carbon credits though.
They might buy them though to inflate the number of protected trees. I’m not saying they are, just providing a potential reason for such a large number
My understanding from reading their posts is that the counter only counts planted trees. Other things like building solar panels and fight deforestation are not even counted like that. That’s why they said they are phasing out the individual tree counter, because it doesn’t account for all those other things.
I’d like to try using this, but I like to search by “all regions” and it won’t ever save my preferences in Fennec
Same. I wish there was a way to provide settings via a custom URL
Yes! That’s how I do it with Mojeek, which is my current search engine of choice
I’m usually connected to a VPN, so it incorrectly auto-detects my region, and also I just don’t like the idea that results are being served based on regional trends and interests
This is a necessary reminder that Ecosia is a scam:
- they don’t “plant trees” but rather contribute very little amounts to existing programmes
- “Every search plants a tree” is a lie. It’s not every search, but rather every couple clicks in an ad
- They use Bing results making them useless
If you’re using Ecosia with an adblocker or knowingly skip over sponsored results then you are NOT in any way contributing to the tree-planting
Can I ask what search engine you would recommend that is not some kind of misleading or a scam
Qwant?
What have you done?
I’d rather ‘little contribution’ than none at all. I’d rather ‘every couple of clicks’ than none at all. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than the major alternatives.
clicks on ads
You’ve helped humanity so much more, so let’s shit on them.
But they are pretty clear about that. Also, how is that worse than Google or bing? It’s not a dream sure, but its a lot better than your money going to Google
they are not “clear about that”. I can see they removed it now but for the longest time the main page had a banner saying “every search plants a tree” and also an actual counter which went up by one every time you made a search – which was misleading, because it wasn’t every “search”, because you would have to click on an ad, and it wasn’t “every”, because it took several clicks on an ad to actually contribute an equivalent of a tree
How many trees did you plant?
I think your second and third point are well known or at least easily conceivable, but where did you get your first point from? Plain curiosity
their own blog
How many have you planted?
Does not sound like a scam.
The build a website, with ads, and donate the revenue.
It is a scam if you make claims that “every search plants a tree”
But this they don’t say on their website. You have to search a lot of more for a tree.
They removed it recently, probably someone called them out on it. And again, searches have nothing to do with funding the tree-planting, it’s clicking on ads
How many trees have you planted?
If fruit trees count then around 50, why?
Why would fruit trees ever be excluded from one’s aggregate tree count?
they don’t “plant trees” but rather contribute very little amounts to existing programmes
Ofcourse they don’t plant trees themselves, it’s a search engine with a small team. They donate their entire profit which averages upwards of a million euros every month, to local tree planting initiatives across the world and that isn’t a ‘little’ number at all.
“Every search plants a tree” is a lie. It’s not every search, but rather every couple clicks on an ad
I agree, they were ‘a bit’ misleading with that in the past. Although they did state in their tree counter earlier and somewhere in their website/blog that it was roughly 45 searches (in Germany, depends on region) which raised enough money to plant a tree. They’ve since removed most, if not all of the misinformation.
They use Bing results making them useless
Since when does using Bing results make a search engine a ‘scam’? DuckDuckGo also uses Bing results, would you call that a scam as well? Ecosia uses Bing search results because it’s close to impossible to make an independent search engine which gives satisfactory results without the resources of a tech giant.
to local tree planting initiatives across the world
Pick a lane. It can’t be both. Either they donate to local initiatives or global ones. Pick one.
Also Ecosia is a not for profit company. They don’t hide that fact.
I think local initiatives around the world would mean initiatives around the world which are specifically local, rather than large, multinational planting organisations.
What’s your contribution?
