A new report by Technology Review has highlighted the issue of the considerable energy demands of the AI sector, challenging the notion that artificial intelligence is a clean industry.
Growing adoption of AI technology means big tech companies’ energy requirements are increasing rapidly.
A single AI query uses as much energy as several ordinary searches on Google, and a month’s worth of media consumption in the average household.
AI and specifically the training of AI models is energy intensive and leading to increased demand for power and consequently rising emissions.
Whilst attention has historically been paid to the energy demands of data centres it is the deployment of AI which is leading to significantly increased power requirements.
This is leading to new challenges for policymakers who need to find ways of making the AI sector greener.