Ethan Leonard

[the Rich @Duderichy]

yeah sorry I only use locally sourced ai

[Pranav @ipranav]

@_ethanleonard Hahal just saw this at Vernon blvd station

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

@blakeandersonw @ecogptapp only 1116 commits a day? ngmi

[Blake Anderson @blakeandersonw]

Building consumer apps is incredibly fun.

Every member of our engineering team has shipped nonstop for the past 3 months! And nobody is required to work daily.

We're gonna start sharing more of the awesome tools we've built @ecogptapp
https://t.co/TeEgDxAqMC

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

hiring the best:
https://t.co/FIeBwneb34

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

i just spent $200k telling new york to quit big ai

the industry is obsessed with building bigger models, using more energy, and collecting more data

we built EcoGPT to do things differently

free AI, efficient models, and 435,978 trees planted

try now: https://t.co/nP3M4k8LH3

[chang @chang___l]

just joined @ecogptapp as eng hire #3 :)

big things coming 👀 👀

[Blake Anderson @blakeandersonw]

If you are interested joining us in nyc for 80+ hr a week working on...

> rl + finetuning open-source models
> b300 deployments
> web search indexes
> new operating systems
> agent harnesses for 10m+ users

...leave a comment below!

[Oliver Manilow @ManilowOliver]

@blakeandersonw @_ethanleonard

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

@gkotelevski we don't think using an AI assistant should mean handing over your private conversations to train future models

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

introducing ecogpt

in the past 6 months we have:
> planted 425k+ trees
> grown to 5m+ users
> delivered 5T+ tokens

eco is free to use, powered by efficient open-source ai, and doesn't train foundation models on your chats

we're growing 50%+ MoM and currently hiring :)

[Peter @petersapps]

< Make a ChatGPT wrapper
< Get Gen Z kids to pay $25 per month for a 6 month old model
< Save water which helps polar bears??
< Make a bunch of money

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

good question! we fund tree planting directly through Trees for the Future, a nonprofit recognized by the UN as a World Restoration Flagship.

their local teams provide seeds and training to local farmers, who plant and maintain forest gardens on their own land.

you can learn more here:
https://t.co/YaEVPoLWvi

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

apply here:
https://t.co/FIeBwndDdw

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

@imjustinliao @omarwasm 100*

[Omar Waseem @omarwasm]

Conversation with @_ethanleonard, Founder of EcoGPT

0:00 Mission & Sustainable AI
2:00 Finland Data Center Infrastructure
3:27 Ethan's Origin Story & Leaving CS
5:13 Partnering with Blake Anderson
6:24 Organic Growth & Tree Planting Virality
8:57 UGC Strategy & App Monetization
10:02 Hiring Strategy & AI Sourcing Agents
13:15 Critique of Big AI Labs & Data Privacy
15:08 Founder Mindset & Obsession Over Balance
16:47 Setting Ceilings & Execution
18:27 Product-Market Fit & Community Sentiment
19:31 Scaling Pains & Delegating Engineering
21:07 Running Start & High School Sacrifices
25:41 Sourcing Talent with a Chip on Their Shoulder
26:18 Finding Fulfillment in Helping Others
27:50 The Risks of Centralized AI Power
29:51 AI Abundance vs. Human Purpose
31:18 EcoGPT's Long-Term Vision
33:57 Environmental Impact & Model Efficiency
36:28 Decentralization & AI Safety Spectrum
38:02 One-Year Goals & 100M WAU Target

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

@omarwasm thanks for having me 🙌

[Omar Waseem @omarwasm]

While Silicon Valley and Washington fight over AI’s future, a 20-year-old shipped his own answer and a million people are using it.

This is Ethan Leonard, and he’s built an eco-conscious alternative to ChatGPT called EcoGPT.

His case is blunt: AI Labs are draining countries’ water and power, training on your private data, and cashing in on the very risks it warns about. That AI Labs are headed down the same path as Big Pharma: profit over people.

Full Episode releasing tomorrow on YouTube and Spotify.

[Ethan Leonard @_ethanleonard]

@lillyemira @johnappscaler @rjvir https://t.co/3IsUrrMFCM