Misty
Making the invisible impact visible: a Chrome extension that shows the water behind your AI use.
JavaScript · Chrome Extensions · Figma · Procreate
The idea
AI and cloud data centers use a lot of water for cooling, and none of it is visible to the person typing the prompt. Misty makes it visible.
Misty is a Chrome extension with a teardrop character who reacts to how much you use AI. Light use keeps Misty happy, heavy use makes Misty sad, and a water-level tracker shows the estimated water behind your prompts. We drew Misty in Figma and Procreate.
Highlights
- Detects prompts sent on ChatGPT and Gemini.
- Estimates the water behind each prompt and keeps a running total.
- Misty's mood changes with your usage, from happy to completely dried up, with notifications as it drops.
- Ideas for next: a map of the data centers behind your prompts, tips for using AI more lightly, and a dress-up feature.
Misty's moods
How it works
- Prompt sent
- Content script
- Service worker
- Mood and water level
- A content script watches for the Enter key or a send button on ChatGPT and Gemini, then messages the extension's service worker.
- The worker applies a five-second cooldown, lowers Misty's happiness, adds to the water total, resets each day, and swaps the toolbar icon through hand-drawn droplet stages.
- Real water use varies between data centers, so Misty uses a generalized estimate rather than a precise number.