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AI's Energy Demands Are Out of Control. Welcome to the Internet's Hyper-Consumption Era
Generative artificial intelligence tools, now part of the everyday user experience online, are causing stress on local power grids and mass water evaporation.
“In the back end, these algorithms that need to be running for any generative AI model are fundamentally very, very different from the traditional kind of Google Search or email,” says Sajjad Moazeni, a computer engineering researcher at the University of Washington. Alistair Speirs, a senior director of Azure global infrastructure at Microsoft says in an email that AI is contributing to data center growth, and points out how the transition to cloud computing is also a major factor worth considering. “I know there's a lot of concern that the power they are burning is basically sucking up all of the energy in that area.” Around the world, the server farms that train and operate AI models may compete with local residents and businesses for power—possibly leading to blackouts during peak times.
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