- Walking app Alltrails has just released a new subscription level with AI features
- We asked AllTrails’ Chief Technology Officer how AllTrail’s Reconciliation AIS Environmental impact with the app’s mission declaration to help people enjoy outdoors
- He says that alltrails are taking steps to reduce energy costs and maximize efficiency when implementing AI features
Earlier this week, we reported that walking app Alltrails had launched a new subscription level: Peak, a more expensive subscription plan that uses AI tools to improve your outdoor experience.
These tools include a community Heatmap, a common feature on the best fitness apps such as alltrails and contemporary like Strava. Heatmap shows where other users often wander, so you can sort paths by popularity.
Other features include outdoor lens that use your phone’s camera to identify plants, insects and landmarks and trail conditions that provide up -to -date information about not only weather but soil conditions, snowpack and even mosquito activity on different parts of your path.
The AllTrails Peak subscription level costs $ 79.99 / £ 79.99 (around AU $ 125) a year, probably due to the cost of AI used.
It is well known that AI is an energy-intensive technology-one of the most popular statistics bound is that the chatgpt-4 uses the equivalent of 519 ml of water, a little more than an average bottle, per day. 100-word email generated. This state comes from the University of California, Riverside, in a study produced in collaboration with the Washington Post.
AI therefore does not appear to be an environmentally friendly technology to be used at the moment due to its energy and cooling requirements. However, Alltrails say it is dedicated to preserving the great outdoors that its users love; The company is cooperating with the leave no trace and a tree planted nonprofit organizations and contributes 1% of its annual revenue to environmental organizations.
When I talked to AllTrails ‘Chief Technology Officer James Graham, about the new subscription levels, I also asked him if Alltrails’ use of AI was in violation of the company’s environmental message.
Be careful with AI
“Great question. That’s something we’re thinking of with every feature we’re building,” Graham told me.
“Our data scientists take time to build features like this more effectively … We think about the size of the model, and for many of our features we do not need to use the largest, highest intensity model possible, so we do not always use the top-of-the-line model that consumes the most energy. We are very aware of how we use it.”
Alltrails, it appears, is trying to mitigate the effect of AI’s power consumption and huge cooling requirements using smaller, more efficient models specifically designed to implement its functions with minimal impact. But Graham also believes that as AI develops, its demands will fall and tell me, “As new technology comes out, we already see the cost of energy of using AI goes down and we believe the trend will continue,”
While the energy foxes for each Individual occurrence of AI use may fall, increasing Overall Using AI could offset these savings. A MIT report from January 2025 states that data centers already account for 1-2% of global energy consumption: By 2030, this could reportedly reach up to 21% due to the requirements set for AI.
If more developers used smaller models and more energy efficient processes, we can avert this serious prediction. Although the AI tools used by AllTrails look impressive and are designed to spur more people to spend more time outside, which can benefit environmental reasons, the concerns will continue with AIS wider use and what it really means ‘not leaving traces’.
