Artificial intelligence sometimes feels like magic, but every word it generates comes with an energy cost, often hidden in distant server farms. But do we really know how much energy they use? That was the starting point behind the Hot Air Factory, oio‘s latest experiment.
The way it works is simple: connect to the Hot Air Factory through the app and prompt away as usual. Press the button to send your request to your home factory as it begins to think. The internal computer heats up, generates heat, then releases a gentle puff of warm air, making the pinwheel spin. The stronger the wind, the harder the thinking! Beyond just “a feel,” you also understand the cost. The Factory tracks the exact energy used for each prompt and breaks it down into familiar actions—brewing an espresso or doom-scrolling social media. Each prompt comes with its tiny energy bill.
If you’re really into heavy thinking or you are not on a rush you can even schedule your prompts for the night shift. so the factory runs when the grid is less stressed. The smarter the thought, the more energy it takes. With the hot air factory, you can choose what models to use based on how much energy they will use: use less intelligence, save some energy. or turn it up, if you want a deeper thought.
The limited edition device challenges our assumptions about AI as an invisible, costless service running somewhere in the cloud. By bringing computation home and making its energy use transparent, the Hot Air Factory prompts reflection on sustainable computing and conscious AI use.
The prototype uses a Jetson Orin Nano to run a series of open-source LLM models from Mistral and Meta. Depending on the energy level selected by the user, it runs either a smaller or a larger model, with the latter requiring more computation and energy to generate responses. The models run natively on the OS using llama.cpp and Ollamafile.
On mobile, a PWA web app communicates with the Hot Air Factory over Wi-Fi. The connection is not limited to the local network: a VPN tunnel allows users to connect to the Factory from anywhere.
Currently produced as a limited edition, oio hopes the project will spark interest and eventually lead to a Hot Air Factory in every home.
Project Page | oio | Instagram
