AI likely to increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation – report | Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, warns a coalition of environmental groups
by silence7
AI likely to increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation – report | Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, warns a coalition of environmental groups
by silence7
2 comments
It’s depressing how much power AI and cryptocurrencies are taking up.
Crypto is taking up 2% of all US power at the moment. That number sounds small, but think about that – it’s basically the power equivalent of adding an entire US state! Take the average consumption of a WHOLE STATE and just crypto alone is taking that much power.
And AI is growing INCREDIBLY fast, data centers are being built out at a massive rate. They’ll dwarf crypto soon. And it’s not like AI is doing anything to offset it, AI isn’t exactly helping green energy grow.
That’s really our biggest challenge… every time we put up a new solar panel, every time a new windmill goes up, every time someone replaces an old incandescent bulb with an LED one, someone else buys a new device. Someone else in the world who never had a car before buys one. Someone else installs air conditioning. Google or Microsoft install a dozen new cloud servers. Every time we build out 100 units of green energy, the world expands to need 110 units of energy. Every year we break records for the most green energy generated, while at the same time break the previous record for most fossil fuel consumed.
Tech bros are a blight upon mankind.