Will Apple Intelligence be able to blow up the fuses in the USA?

Thursday 19th December 2024 04:38 AM

The exponential growth of artificial intelligence and related technologies could disrupt electricity supplies in the United States and Canada as early as next year. North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) report warns of critical reliability challenges that electricity networks will have to face.

What is NERC?

This is a non-profit organization that plays a key role in the security and reliability of North America’s power grid. It was created to ensure that the electricity grid operates reliably and to prevent major outages. It is therefore incumbent on him electrical reliability supervision.

Also, it establishes mandatory reliability standards for the interconnected electricity grid of the United States, Canada and part of Mexico, which aim to prevent major disruptions, such as widespread blackouts.

In this context, it monitors and audits operators and companies in the electricity sector to ensure that they respect these standards and can impose sanctions. Finally – and this is what interests us today – she conducts short- and long-term assessments to predict energy demand challenges.

It will therefore identify potential risks for the network, such as extreme weather phenomena, cyberattacks or the rapid increase in energy demand (e.g., for AI and data centers).

An alarmist report!

NERC fears for the future, particularly that the enormous growth ofThe use of AI cannot lead to power outages in the United States and Canada next year. This warning was issued shortly after (concurrently?) the public release of iOS 18.2, which brought many more Apple Intelligence features online. Note that this launch would also have caused a temporary outage of ChatGPT.

According to her, artificial intelligence services – such as ChatGPT and Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers– will see data center energy consumption double in just four years, and power grids will likely struggle to meet this demand.

For NERC, North America’s power grid faces critical reliability challenges as power generation fails to keep pace with demand from artificial intelligence, industry watchdog has warned . The deficit could thus cause power outages during periods of peak demand in both countries as early as next year. And for lack of electricity, no AI…

The report finally aligns with the International Energy Agency’s forecast that data centers alone will exceed 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026or double the levels in 2022. The challenge is made all the greater by the reduction in fossil fuel production which is not matched by additional renewable energy.