Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the most-powerful technology right now. Almost everything seems to be about AI — AI-powered, AI-related and more. However, a new report by The New Yorker sheds light on a potential hidden cost of this popularity: Its immense or should we say dangerous appetite for electricity. According to the New Yorker report, the popular chatbot ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, uses a staggering half a million kilowatt-hours daily to handle its 200 million user requests. This translates to over 17,000 times more electricity than the average US household uses in a day. Now wonder what will happen when these requests go up. Also, what about other similar chabots and the amount of electricity that they will consume.
The dangerous numbers
What makes these figures more alarming is that the wider adoption of AI technology could lead to an even bigger energy drain. A study by Alex de Vries, a data scientist for the Dutch National Bank, published in the journal Joule, suggests that if Google integrated generative AI into every search, it could consume a mind-boggling 29 billion kilowatt-hours annually. This surpasses the yearly energy consumption of entire countries like Kenya, Guatemala, and Croatia.
“AI is just very energy intensive,” de Vries told Business Insider. “Every single AI server can already consume as much power as more than a dozen UK households combined.”
Estimating the total energy consumption of the AI industry is challenging due to the…
The dangerous numbers
What makes these figures more alarming is that the wider adoption of AI technology could lead to an even bigger energy drain. A study by Alex de Vries, a data scientist for the Dutch National Bank, published in the journal Joule, suggests that if Google integrated generative AI into every search, it could consume a mind-boggling 29 billion kilowatt-hours annually. This surpasses the yearly energy consumption of entire countries like Kenya, Guatemala, and Croatia.
“AI is just very energy intensive,” de Vries told Business Insider. “Every single AI server can already consume as much power as more than a dozen UK households combined.”
Estimating the total energy consumption of the AI industry is challenging due to the…
