Artificial intelligence, AI, is absolutely everywhere in our daily lives: in our smartphones and intelligent assistants, on social networks or even sectors such as industry, transport and marketing. An omnipresence which raises the question of its impact on climate change.
An estimated 1% of the world's population uses ChatGPT on a daily basis. But the energy resources and mainly electricity, necessary for its operation, are simply colossal.
Last week, Google announced that it was banking on nuclear power in order to have sufficient electricity resources to operate its artificial intelligence. An announcement that raises the question of the environmental footprint of AI. Indeed, according to the International Energy Agency, artificial intelligence today consumes 0.03% of global electricity consumption.
For example, a question asked of a generative AI like ChatGTP consumes 10 times more energy than a Google search. The three main causes of the environmental impact are: materials (rare metals which are very polluting), a phenomenal quantity of water (to cool the servers) and significant electricity consumption with pollution and CO2 emissions.
In terms of resources, running ChatGPT requires two nuclear power plants. “Digital technology itself has already exceeded greenhouse gas emissions, it has exceeded civil aviation globally.“, says Olivier Vergeynst, director of the Belgian Institute for Responsible Digital Technology. “Generally speaking, generative AI will consume significantly more than what we use on a daily basis. Typically, if you do a Google search or a search via ChatGPT, you will consume ten times more via generative AI. This will be multiplied by another 100 if you generate images or videos.“
chatgpt openAI climate change electricity consumption nuclear energy
