To switch or not to switch? Clean energy alternatives demand more energy as AI fuels unsustainable mining practices
A new debate has emerged about technologies that have become popular as the preferred pathways towards enabling countries to enhance climate change mitigation initiatives. It is emerging that these technologies, particularly electrification using renewable energy sources, and the expanding influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) pose serious threats to the same environment they are seeking to protect. AI data centres have become some of the largest consumers of electric power, potentially surpassing global manufacturing. A new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted that the annual energy demand by AI data centres will be slightly more than that which is used by Japan over the same period by 2030. Data centre’s demand for energy is principally driven by the need for cooling of servers and other computing accessories. Due to increasing demand for tools such as Chat GPT, data servers are increasing their data processing capacity and hence requiring more ...