The environmental impact of AI

We’re hearing a lot about the promise and perils of AI, but not much about the environmental impact of AI.  Here too, the potential impacts are mixed.  AI can be used to optimize systems and operations, reducing emissions and use of resources, providing a positive impact.  Scientists may be able to use the power of AI to develop solutions to some of the earth’s environmental problems.  Conversely, AI may provide industries with improvements that allow more use of the earth’s resources.  And of course, the large computing systems used for the larger AI models use significant energy and water resources (for cooling).  Per a recent article at Nature.com, “The direct impacts of AI on climate so far are relatively small. AI operations for large models require millions of specialized processors in dedicated data centres with powerful cooling systems. AI processors installed in 2023 consume 7–11 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually, which is about 0.04% of global electricity use. That is less than for cryptocurrency mining (100–150 TWh) and conventional data centres plus data-transmission networks (500–700 TWh), which together accounted for 2.4–3.3% of global electricity demand in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).”  However, AI is in its infancy and its use (and therefore use of energy, water, and computing hardware) is expected to increase rapidly.  What does this mean for our daily lives?  For now, unless your job or education requires you to use AI applications, use the AI applications when appropriate, but recognize that even a simple AI query uses energy and make conscious choices whether to use that resource. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions/