With the industry starting to consume artificial intelligence (AI) on a large scale, the chief technology officer of Ceres Power warns that AI can impact the climate. It is believed that as AI tools become more widely used for efficiency, there is a risk that this could result in even higher energy consumption.
During the “IOT: Powering the Digital Economy” panel on the new energy landscape, Caroline Hargrove said “What scares me is the energy consumption if you’re using ChatGPT [for simple queries]”. Reportedly, Hargrove is CTO of Ceres Power, a developer of clean energy technology, including electrolysers for green hydrogen.
The loopholes!
With insights from a report by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition, introduced in March, highlighted the risks that AI could pose during the climate crisis. The report is also expected to include AI’s growing energy demand.
In January a International Energy Agency report was published which highlighted that on an average a typical Google search uses 0.3 watt-hours of electricity. On the other hand about 2.9 watt-hours is being used for a ChatGPT request. The report is believed to have mentioned that when AI is incorporated into 9 billion searches daily, it can need about 10 terawatt-hours of additional electricity a year.
The responsibility needed
Mary de Wysocki, chief sustainability officer, Cisco, a technology company, made a similar point in that it was important to be “responsible users of [AI] where we know where we can add the benefit and not just use it because it’s potentially fun.”
“AI industry is expected to have grown exponentially to consume at least ten times its [electricity] demand in 2023,” as per insights from IEA’s report. Furthermore, Hargrove explained if this consumption was not managed properly “then the perverse effect could happen that we use so much more energy.”
“So as much as I’m a big fan in using the data to really optimise everything, we should use it to reduce our consumption, but the perverse effect can happen when you have a new toy and, and people getting behind it at [such] a rate,” Wysocki explained.
