We’re living through boom-times for Artificial Intelligence, with more and more of us using AI assistants like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Grok and Copilot to do basic research and writing tasks.

But what is the environmental impact of these technologies?

Many listeners have got in touch with More or Less to ask us to investigate various claims about the energy and water use of AI.

One claim in particular has caught your attention - the idea that the equivalent of a small bottle of drinking water is consumed by computer processors every time you ask an AI a question, or get it to write a simple email.

So, where does that claim come from, and is it true?

Reporter: Paul Connolly

In the midst of the television coverage of Soccer Aid, a celebrity soccer match organised by Unicef, the audience was told that “one in six children around the world are currently living through war”.

Listener Isla got in touch with More or Less to ask whether the claim was correct, so we tracked down the source to an organisation called the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Research director Siri Aas Rustad tells us how they worked out a figure for the number of children living near to a “conflict” and the big differences between that and something most people would think of as “war”.

If you’ve seen a number you think we should look at, email the team on [email protected]

Presenter: Lizzy McNeill

Manchester United are terrible, even according to their own manager. Last season saw their worst ever performance in Premier League history.

But at the same time, according to Forbes magazine, they’re still the second most valuable football club in the world.

How is that possible?

Tim talks to Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert and the author of The Price of Football, to find out the secret of Manchester United’s financial success.

Presenter: Tim Harford

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news and in life. This week:

Is the secret to halving obesity rates really just a matter of cutting back on one fizzy drink a day?

How many new babies in the City of London have a foreign-born parent? And since fewer than one baby a week is actually born in the City of London, how much should we care?

Electricity in the UK is more expensive than almost anywhere else. Why? And is it anything to do with wind turbines?

And we help out rival Radio 4 programme Start the Week with a claim about churches.

If you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at, email the team: [email protected]

More or Less is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Presenter: Tim Harford

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How does economics help us understand conflicts through history?

That’s the question that economist and journalist Duncan Weldon tries to answer in his new book, Blood and Treasure.

Tim talks to Duncan about the economic perspective on Viking raiders, Spanish conquest and the Vietnam war.

Presenter: Tim Harford

Tim Harford looks at some of the numbers in the news and in life. This week:

Is church-going making a comeback in the UK?

Is it true that every day, 1000 people begin claiming personal independence payments, or PIP?

When the government talks about how it “returns” illegal immigrants, what does it mean?

Can a new telescope really see golf balls on the moon?

If you’ve seen a number you think looks suspicious, email the More or Less team: [email protected]

More or Less is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Presenter: Tim Harford

It’s been over three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the human toll is growing on both sides.

Recently, politicians and journalists have declared a grim milestone, one million Russian casualties.

But is this number accurate?

Tim talks to Seth Jones, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Olga Ivshina, from the BBC Russian service, to investigate this statistic.

If you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at, email the More or Less team: [email protected]

Presenter: Tim Harford

Tim Harford looks at some of the numbers in the news and in life. In this episode:

Why is the data on the ethnicity of grooming gangs of such poor quality?

Iran has apparently enriched uranium to 60%, but what does that number mean?

Adam Curtis’s latest series, Shifty, includes claims about Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power. We ask Sir John Curtice, polling king of election night, if they’re accurate.

And we ask an economist to explain why being pillaged by a Viking might be more lucrative than you’d imagine.

If you’ve seen a number in the news you think needs a stern look, email the team: [email protected]

More or Less is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Presenter: Tim Harford

Untruths sneak into our lives in all kinds of ways. Sometimes they’re outright lies. Blatant misinformation.

But in this episode, we’re going to talk about something else - those sneaky numbers and claims that bounce around our society and that aren’t exactly false, but are leading you down the wrong path.

That’s the subject of a book called May Contain Lies by Alex Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School.

Tim talks to Alex about the statistical claims that might not be wrong, but aren’t right either – and how to make sure you aren’t fooled by them yourself.

Presenter: Tim Harford

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news, and in life. This week:

We debunk a false claim that the hotel bill for immigrants is the size of the tax bill for Manchester.

An article in the Spectator claimed that 4% of women aged between 18 and 34 in the UK are OnlyFans creators. We track down the source and discover that it is not very good.

Do people in Scotland use much more water than people in Yorkshire? If so, why?

And we examine a popular claim that today’s working mothers spend more time with their children than your stereotypical 1950s housewife did.

Make sure you get in touch if you’ve seen a number you think Tim and the team should take a look at. The email is [email protected]

More or Less is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Presenter: Tim Harford