AI is chewing up so much energy it its putting goals for climate change initiatives out of reach.
Google and Microsoft's futures are tied up in AI, and the power use is daunting. Google's recently released report on emissions generated by its operations shows AI to be a growing challenge for them. Microsoft's plans to become climate-neutral by 2030 also seem stymied by AI. Damn, that Clippy.
"Google's real motivation here is to build the best AI systems that they can," Dodge says. "And they're willing to pour a ton of resources into that, including things like training AI systems on bigger and bigger data centers all the way up to supercomputers, which incurs a tremendous amount of electricity consumption and therefore CO2 emissions."
Microsoft has taken its climate pledge one step further than Google, saying it will be carbon negative by 2030. But, it too is facing setbacks because of its focus on AI. In its sustainability report released in May, Microsoft said its emissions grew by 29% since 2020 due to the construction of more datacenters that are "designed and optimized to support AI workloads."
"The infrastructure and electricity needed for these technologies create new challenges for meeting sustainability commitments across the tech sector," the report reads.
NPR
Previously:
• AI is either going to save us or kill us. Or both.
• Goldman-Sachs warns that AI could be a bad investment
• Logitech mouse has a dedicated 'AI' button
