They do still rely on similar models though, they just produce shorter outputs and are more fine-tuned, so they run for less time per query and thus use less energy.
It will always use more power than traditional search boxes. To be fair though, it probably isn’t enough to matter relative to all the generative crap.
The agents that decode natural language inputs to return search results are different from the ones that generate output.
Generative AI is the wooooorst, that’s what takes up the most resources, and then produces questionable output.
They do still rely on similar models though, they just produce shorter outputs and are more fine-tuned, so they run for less time per query and thus use less energy.
It will always use more power than traditional search boxes. To be fair though, it probably isn’t enough to matter relative to all the generative crap.