Should you enter a question into Quili.AI on January 31, your query received’t be answered by a big language mannequin, however as a substitute by residents from the Chilean neighborhood of Quilicura.
The undertaking goals to switch artificial intelligence with “analog intelligence,” to each spotlight the environmental affect of AI and to get individuals pondering consciously about their AI use.
“We’re inviting individuals to have a day with out AI,” Lorena Antiman from Corporación NGEN, an environmental group targeted partly on defending Quilicura’s wetlands, says whereas talking by way of a translator. Corporación NGEN spearheaded the undertaking.
As an alternative of going by way of a data center, every immediate into the “chatbot” can be answered immediately by Quilicura residents. Artists, academics, and others in the neighborhood will all meet in a single place on Saturday, prepared to reply to the queries.
Quilicura and knowledge facilities
The individuals of Quilicura, Chile, are immediately dwelling with the affect of AI knowledge facilities. The neighborhood is situated on the sting of Santiago, which is changing into an information heart hub: 16 such facilities have been authorised for building there since 2012.
Information facilities use immense quantities of vitality, in addition to lots of water to chill the servers. Understanding AI water use could be difficult, however some consultants have tried to quantify it. A 2024 Washington Post article says that producing a 100-word electronic mail with OpenAI’s GPT-4 requires 519 milliliters of water, or simply over a bottle.
Google opened its first Latin American knowledge heart in Quilicura in 2015. That facility makes use of 50 liters of water a second—or the identical as 8,000 Chilean households—The New York Times reported in 2025, based mostly on environmental data filed with the federal government. (Google says the websites used much less water the yr prior, about the identical water use as a golf course.)
This knowledge heart increase from tech firms is going on as Chile experiences a 15-year megadrought. The nation is anticipated to steer the world when it comes to water stress by 2040.
Neighborhood activists in Quilicura have highlighted the affect of those knowledge facilities by exhibiting before and after photos of the area’s wetlands, which seem dry even through the wet season.
How Quili.AI works
As much as 50 neighborhood members can be collaborating within the day with out AI, prepared to reply to Quili.AI prompts through the 24 hours of January 31 solely.
Every of them will deliver their distinctive expertise to the duty. Immediate Quili.Ai to make a sure picture, and an area artist will draw it. Ask Quili.AI for a recipe, and somebody will share their very own.
“Or want one thing defined to you such as you’re 5?” a neighborhood member says in a video selling the motion. “Ask Mateo. He’s 5.”
As an alternative of servers and cloud computing, neighborhood members will use their very own experiences, their cultural information, and their human judgment. Responses might not be rapid, however Antiman says they’ll do their greatest to answer to as many queries as they’ll.
And although the people powering this “analog intelligence” are native to Quilicara, the organizers say anybody can use the instrument.
Instilling higher AI habits
Quili.AI goals to make AI’s environmental affect seen: The web site will present customers an estimate of what number of liters of water they saved by chatting with an actual individual, quite than querying AI.
Antiman hopes the motion helps individuals assume extra responsibly about what they flip to AI for, and if their prompts are well worth the sources they require. Identical to we’re taught to show off lights once we go away a room, or to not run water whereas we brush our enamel, she hopes individuals can study higher AI habits.
Many individuals might merely not concentrate on the impacts of utilizing AI. Antiman is a instructor, and she or he says her college students are stunned when she highlights these results.
“They don’t know the implications of the way in which they’re utilizing AI,” she says.
The day with out AI can also be an invite, she provides, for individuals to look to their very own neighbors or communities for information. Perhaps your neighbor is aware of the best way to change a tire, or one other already has a recipe for cupcakes, so that you don’t must ask ChatGPT.
This connection between actual individuals is what makes the Quili.AI undertaking so thrilling to Antiman.
“Essentially the most magical factor about [the Quili.AI project] is that the neighborhood is the one engaged on it,” she says. “They’re all coming collectively to make this occur.”
