Ella Ivanescu via Unsplash
Artificial intelligence companies are power hungry—in more ways than one.
A new commentary published Tuesday in the journal Joule argues that AI bots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard may one day soon use as much energy as a small country. The increase in AI demand, as well as the resources necessary to power them, will further exacerbate climate change issues due to the greenhouse gas emissions.
“Looking at the growing demand for AI service, it’s very likely that energy consumption related to AI will significantly increase in the coming years,” Alex de Vries, founder of digital trends watchdog Digiconomist and sustainability at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said in a statement.