KI -Energieverbrauch: Sollten wir unsere KI -Verwendung einschränken, um den Planeten zu retten?

𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭?

“Plug, baby, plug! Electricity is available.” With these words Emmanuel Macron explained that France has enough energy available to power their newly announced AI data centers. This made me wonder; 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘐 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦?

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝:

– data centers will consume up to 4% of the total world energy by 2030.- 24.64% of data center capacity is used by AI-related tasks.

– 153 TWh of energy is spent this year on AI, which is the equivalent to what 9 large nuclear power plants produce per year.

– Besides pure energy consumption, the demand for clean water for cooling purposes and the pressure on local energy grids are an issue.

– 2920 ChatGPT queries per year is the average per user, which comes down to about 11 hours of using an electric heater. But this figure does not include model training.

– Google now uses AI enhanced search results, so it’s no longer a low-power alternative to ChatGPT.

𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭:

Thanks to AI we can predict weather and climate, map our oceans’ plastic concentration, effectively reforest with drones, recycle waste more efficiently, and provide life-saving information during heatwaves, hurricanes and floods. Finally, when properly trained, AI can help influence the public’s opinion massively and help us all to prevent further climate change, and adapt to the inevitable changes.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧:

For me personally, I don’t see a future path where AI does not play a huge role in our daily lives. The potential of AI to have a positive impact outweighs the downside that comes with its energy consumption, for me. Eventually it is up to you to make a decision on how you will use artificial intelligence in your daily tasks.

Why should we save the planet for humans when this is the best they can do with it