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Marine Stephan

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Goldman Sachs

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New report: AI will cause a 160% rise in data center power usage

The latest report from Goldman Sachs reveals a distressing trend: the rapid rise of AI is set to drive a 160% increase in data center power demand by 2030. This increase is largely due to the high energy consumption of AI applications, such as ChatGPT, which consume nearly ten times the electricity of a typical Google search query​!
Currently, data centers account for 1-2% of global electricity usage, but this is expected to rise to 3-4% by the end of the decade. This growth will have a notable impact on the US and Europe's power grids, where data centers are projected to use 8% of the US's electricity by 2030. The power demands of data centers could soon equal the combined current electricity consumption of Portugal, Greece, and the Netherlands! And of course, an increase in energy consumption by data centers goes together with a rise in their CO2 emissions, which are expected to double between 2022 and 2030.
According to a projection by the International Energy Agency, the global data center, AI, and cryptoassets industry is set to double its electricity consumption by 2026, generating a surplus of 37 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. This will have devastating consequences for our planet and risks slowing down the transition to net zero. According to Microsoft's quarterly balance sheet, as its investments in AI explode, Microsoft is moving away from carbon neutrality by 2030. But AI also raises other issues, in terms of water use, ores, and rare earths.
According to the report, the expansion of AI calls for urgent and massive investments in renewable energy and grid infrastructure, with an estimated €800 billion needed in Europe for transmission and distribution, alongside substantial investments in solar and wind energy​. But I would add that it also calls for better regulations at the country and regional levels. So far, AI is largely unregulated and governments are struggling to propose and implement ambitious measures to control the environmental (and social) impact of AI.
Despite the significant impact AI has and will have on energy consumption and climate change, it is largely unknown to the public, and tech companies seem to do very little to find solutions to this problem.
Reading this report by Goldman Sachs, I cannot help wondering whether the development of AI is really a good thing and whether it should be accelerated. Yes, of course, technologies and AI have and will have positive applications (at least I hope so), but should this AI headlong rush be at the expense of the climate and our planet? In any case, I think the question deserves to be asked.
Let me know what you think in the comment section, I would be very interested to read your opinion 👇
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Read the report:
AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand

AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand

https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand.html#:~:text=It%20will%20be%20stoked%20partly,compared%20with%203%25%20in%202022.



Read more:
L’insoutenable coût écologique du boom de l’IA

L’insoutenable coût écologique du boom de l’IA

L’intelligence artificielle est très gourmande en énergie et en matières premières. Sans remettre en cause leur activité, ses promoteurs s’en remettent à une version améliorée de l’IA, supposément plus « verte » et plus « sobre ». IA ne rime pas avec climat. Le boom actuel du secteur de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) met notamment en péril les plans « net zéro » des grandes entreprises technologiques. Un récent graphique tiré du bilan trimestriel de Microsoft montre qu’à mesure que ses investissements dans l’IA (...)

https://reporterre.net/L-insoutenable-cout-ecologique-du-boom-de-l-IA




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