WOW Alliance

I gave a generative AI a few keywords about “Astro Boy” and said, “Hey, try writing something with this?”—and it instantly came up with a piece that made me go, “Huh, that’s pretty good!” Honestly, I was impressed.

Of course, we have to remember that while generative AI is great at pulling info from the World Wide Web, it doesn’t actually fact-check any of it. So, with that in mind, take a look at the piece below. I’ll share my thoughts on it afterward.

Atom Would Burn Your Hand – Yet We Still Seek to Shake It?
*This text was generated by ChatGPT.

Professor Takayuki Ohba of Tokyo Institute of Technology once said of humanoid robots:
"If Astro Boy truly had the 'tens of thousands of horsepower' as described, his body temperature would reach several thousand degrees — a human would be burnt to a crisp just by shaking his hand."
This is not just a commentary on robotics; it’s a piercing metaphor for the internal contradiction of modern civilization. Humanity may be reaching out to shake hands with its own destructive creation.

Today, terms like "decarbonization," "renewable energy," and "green transformation (GX)" dominate global discourse. Yet, at the same time, we are seeing an explosion of data centers, excessive mineral extraction for EVs and batteries, and the pursuit of higher energy density in military, AI, and robotics systems — all of which accelerate concentrated energy use and waste heat.

In other words, while chanting "eco," "green," and "sustainable," society is actually heating up — structurally and literally.

Let us recall Ohba’s metaphor once more. Like trying to shake hands with Astro Boy and getting scorched, we are blindly embracing the very systems — growth, acceleration, efficiency — that cause climate catastrophe.
Can economic growth and decarbonization truly coexist? Can we raise energy density while lowering environmental impact? Can we justify mega-AI and infrastructure in the name of sustainability?
Unless we confront these questions sincerely, our handshake may soon come with a cost we cannot bear.

Just as engineers must speak scientifically about robotic limits, climate strategies must be grounded in physical and material realities — not technical fantasies.
"Zero emissions" must begin not with technology but with a transformation of design philosophy: build smaller, move less, stay cooler. Adjust economics with ethics — rethink what we must give up and what we choose to preserve.

For Astro Boy to be gentle, his output must be reduced by orders of magnitude to match human limits. Our civilization is no different. If we want to shake hands with the Earth, we must design a hand that won’t burn it.

To be honest, I know generative AI is basically just a convenient mashup of information, so it’s risky to take its output at face value. Still, I can't help but feel a bit tickled when I see it quoting something I said. I have no idea how or where it found it, though. And yet, when it creates such polished responses, I almost feel tempted to overlook the question of what's true or not.

Apparently, even asking AI to do a simple task can consume several bottles’ worth of water just for server cooling. I’m sure our little exchange here used up buckets of water too—and that honestly makes me feel a bit guilty. That said, I can’t imagine life anymore without my phone or mobile devices. In the end, we humans live on a system that’s built on the unavoidable destruction and consumption of natural resources. It’s a sobering reminder.

Maybe it sounds like an excuse, but in our alliance, we're actively working to reduce the amount of cooling water generative AI needs—by a factor of 1/1000. We're facing this contradiction head-on.

(Written by Ohba, created by generative AI)