Companies such as Google and Microsoft currently don't disclose the energy consumption of their AI programs, leading to a call for transparency and government regulation to align with climate policies.
And over the last few years, AI has gradually become more integrated into our everyday activities, such as answering questions via Alexa or Siri, routing Google Maps, or identifying people through photos, all available on our phones and home computers. But few people consider how much power it takes to complete these seemingly simple tasks.
Until now, the response to the use of AI in energy operations to make them more efficient and reduce costs, has been overwhelmingly positive. But now, experts worry that the high energy demands of these types of technologies may have been widely overlooked. If AI is used in energy projects to support modernization and decarbonization, it may be causing more harm to the environment than we realize.
At present, there is a lot of ambiguity around the amount of energy it takes to power AI programs. For example, if you ask ChatGPT this question, it responds along the lines of “As an AI language model, I don’t have a physical presence or directly consume energy.” The complexity of AI programs means they consume much more energy than other forms of computing, but the companies that are building these programs, such as Google and Microsoft, are not disclosing how much.
We’re seeing more and more companies incorporate AI into their operations as it becomes more widely available. Sasha Luccioni, the climate lead for the AI company Hugging Face, explained: “This exponential use of AI brings with it the need for more and more energy.” Luccioni added, “And yet we’re seeing this shift of people using generative AI models just because they feel like they should, without sustainability being taken into account.
The rapid advancement in AI technology has led companies across all sectors to incorporate AI programs into their operations, as they look to evolve. This can be viewed as positive, as companies are embracing technology and modernization, which could make operations more efficient. However, the issue of energy use in AI and similar technologies is often not being considered, meaning that companies are rapidly adopting AI programs without assessing their impact on the environment.
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