Lab 001 - Introduction · ACTIVE · v1.2

The Joule Hypothesis

Why does this matter?

Consider the cost of artificial intelligence (AI) measured in two ways:

How many tokens it processes: $/Mtok (million tokens)

How much energy it consumes: $/kWh

Let's take a quick look at the average cost of electrical energy across the United States.

EIA · MAY 2026 · PRELIMINARY

Average Electricity Price by State

All end-use sectors · cents per kilowatthour

Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly, July 2026, Table 5.6.A

United States13.83¢$0.138/kWh

May 2026 average electricity prices by state and District of Columbia
#
1		12.58¢
2		26.94¢
3		12.68¢
4		10.17¢
5		26.27¢
6		13.13¢
7		23.38¢
8		15.31¢
9		23.27¢
10		13.28¢
11		11.92¢
12		46.14¢
13		9.22¢
14		15.88¢
15		12.79¢
16		9.12¢
17		11.48¢
18		11.15¢
19		10.15¢
20		23.52¢
21		18.33¢
22		25.12¢
23		15.89¢
24		13.17¢
25		12.18¢
26		11.13¢
27		11.86¢
28		9.86¢
29		10.18¢
30		22.69¢
31		19.54¢
32		8.07¢
33		23.19¢
34		11.82¢
35		8.67¢
36		14.05¢
37		9.03¢
38		11.50¢
39		15.12¢
40		26.71¢
41		11.78¢
42		12.61¢
43		11.86¢
44		10.07¢
45		10.65¢
46		20.54¢
47		12.63¢
48		12.02¢
49		11.74¢
50		13.68¢
51		10.05¢

8.07¢46.14¢

We will be using 2 standard units of measure for energy. Can you guess them?

The 2 Units of Measuring Energy

💡
Tap to Reveal
🧪
Tap to Reveal

Next, let's explore AI token processing costs.

Starting with the leading frontier AI providers in the US: OpenAI and Anthropic.

COST PER MILLION TOKENS

Inferencing costs by model

OpenAI model pricing per million tokens
Model	Input / Mtok	Output / Mtok	Out / in
GPT-5.6 Luna	$0.20	$1.20	5.999999999999999×
GPT-5.6 Terra	$2.00	$12.00	6×
GPT-5.6 Sol	$5.00	$30.00	6×

How can we measure the efficiency of these tokens?

$1 = 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ

Will this baseline estimate lead us to improve understanding of AI's cost between energy consumption and token production?As well as its efficiency?This is our long-term Tech Lab experiment: the Joule Hypothesis

What will your first Tech Lab experiment be?

As an anonymous guest, you are provided 50 kJ to explore the rest of our lab.Complete this introduction with a quiz or skip ahead to explore more about the Joule Hypothesis.Take the quiz Continue to the Lab Continue exploringDisclaimer: The connection between $1 of provider cost and 1 kWh (or 3.6 MJ) is a policy baseline, not a claim that one dollar of AI usage physically consumes one kilowatt-hour of electricity. In this ecosystem, Joules measure the AI capacity made available and consumed while producing an observable result. They do not inherently measure intelligence, human effort, or the intrinsic value of that result. However, it is the outcome of this result leading to some intelligence, human effort, or intrinsic value with respect to the amount of Joules consumed is what we attempt to measure in this experiment.