Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the world has seen an incredible surge in investment, development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. According to one estimate, the amount of computational power used for AI is doubling . The social and economic impacts of this boom have provoked reactions around the world.
European regulators recently Meta to pause plans to train AI models on users' Facebook and Instagram data. The Bank of International Settlements, which coordinates the world's central banks, has AI adoption may change the way inflation works. The environmental impacts have so far received less attention.
A single query to an AI-powered chatbot can use up to as an old-fashioned Google search. Broadly speaking, a generative AI system may use to complete a task than it would take with traditional software. This enormous demand for energy translates into surges in and , and may place further stress on electricity grids already strained by climate change.
Energy Most AI applications run on servers in data centers. In 2023, before the AI boom really kicked off, the International Energy Agency estimated data centers already accounted for and around 1% of the world's energy-related CO2 emissions. For comparison, in 2022, the aviation sector accounted for while the steel sector was .
How is the rapid growth in AI use changing these figures? Recent environmental reporting by Microsoft, Meta and Google provides some insight. Microsoft has significant i.
