Artificial intelligence is already an environmental problemThe era of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world, both figura...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
The era of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world, both figuratively and literally. The energy and water consumption of large technology companies, the main developers of this technology, as well as their carbon emissions, have skyrocketed in recent years. And projections show that the trend will not change. Although no company officially says that this increase is due to the emergence of AI, the numbers show a significant jump in 2022, the year in which OpenAI launched ChatGPT and inaugurated the generative AI race.
Seven of the 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization are technological, which gives an idea of the importance of the sector. Large industries have large resource needs. All in all, the data shows an important jump. Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside and a specialist in AI sustainability, believes it is safe to infer that AI is responsible for this escalation in pollution and resource consumption. The increase in the last two years, he maintains, has been very large and coincides in time with a strong investment in generative AI and other services related to AI.
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The latest figures available from Google and Microsoft, the main developers of this technology, reflect large growth for the second consecutive year in the three key magnitudes. Google, responsible for the Gemini model, has reported a 16.2% increase in energy consumption in 2023 compared to the previous year. Microsoft, owner of Copilot and which has lent its infrastructure to OpenAI to develop all versions of ChatGPT and the Dall-E image generator, has recorded a growth of 28.7%, as reflected in its annual sustainability report. The company founded by Bill Gates has doubled its energy needs between 2020 and 2023, going from 11.2 million megawatt-hours (MWh) to 24 million MWh. Almost the same thing has happened at Google, with an increase of 67% in this period.
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https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-07-16/artificial-intelligence-is-already-an-environmental-problem.html#Taxonomy
- Energy
- Energy Reduction
- Energy Conservation
- Data Center Management
- Data Management
- Data & Analysis
- Data Science