We did the math on AI's energy footprint. Here's the story you haven't heard.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/

Let’s say you’re running a marathon as a charity runner and organizing a fundraiser to support your cause. You ask an AI model 15 questions about the best way to fundraise.

Then you make 10 attempts at an image for your flyer before you get one you are happy with, and three attempts at a five-second video to post on Instagram.

You’d use about 2.9 kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to ride over 100 miles on an e-bike (or around 10 miles in the average electric vehicle) or run the microwave for over three and a half hours.

(snip) (Paraphrase: Companies have no incentives to share exactly how much energy queries use.)

“We should stop trying to reverse-engineer numbers based on hearsay,” Luccioni says, “and put more pressure on these companies to actually share the real ones.” Luccioni has created the AI Energy Score, a way to rate models on their energy efficiency. But closed-source companies have to opt in. Few have, Luccioni says.

Further on, the article talks about how these data centers rely on dirty energy, like coal, and that the demand these queries pose means that companies are trying to fast-track centers in dirty grids.

This is a really comprehensive article that clearly outlines the energy threat AI poses. Is it worth it?

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R and thanks! Important read. Water usage is also mentioned:

Some energy is wasted at nearly every exchange through imperfect insulation materials and long cables in between racks of servers, and many buildings use millions of gallons of water (often fresh, potable water) per day in their cooling operations.

These data centers threaten the water supply for people living near them. I've posted a few threads about that.

Some newer articles:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-hidden-cost-of-ai-how-data-centers-are-draining-water-resources-and-what-it-means-for-investors/ar-AA1FwfcW

https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/the-water-consumption-question-data-centres-and-utilities

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116287/ai-data-centers-nevada-water-reno-computing-environmental-impact/

https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/how-ai-data-centers-are-tapping-into-wisconsins-fresh-water/

[newdeal2]

2. Don't think it will stop

Especially with Mr. beautiful big “clean” coal in office. I imagine the technology will eventually become more efficient in 5-10 years.

[Ford_Prefect]

11. That's 5-10 years much too late for the planet and those of us still breathing. That's like assuming a weapons system

will eventually deliver on it's requirements if we only give it enough time to mature, and we spend billions of dollars without restraint.

It also assumes there WILL be a useful result for all of us that is worth the ALL of costs.

IMO it is just like this "Golden Dome" defense system: a huge boondoggle in search of a sugar daddy. If sugar daddy wants it bad enough our bought and sold Congress will oblige.

[Ford_Prefect]

3. AI seems a lot like Crypto in certain ways. In particular no one wants to admit the energy costs to use either one.

No one involved with either will admit to dangerous assumptions made about the safety of using either one.

Advocates for both supplied significant financial resources to the GOP at all levels during the last election.

Can you see the disparity here?

[hatrack]

9. It's two-fold: it's keeping the latest tech bubble inflated while protecting obsolete power generation & FF companies

The louder the Wall Street hype machine honks, and the louder the endless "demand" for more more more server farms, the more inevitable the "need" for more NG power plants, and to take coal plants out of mothballs.

It's a great way to make latest, greatest scam a matter of "national security" while simultaneously protecting utility and energy companies from having to change a thing.

It also allows Shitstain and company an additional weapon with which to smother any potential moves towards cutting carbon emissions and dealing with climate collapse - the "Gotta Beat China" shield.

[NJCher]

4. They are trying to double our energy

Bills in NJ to cover one of their new “data centers” in Secaucus, New Jersey.

They want the taxpayers to fund the bigger electrical grid so they can make more money off their investment.

The Democratically controlled congress said no way. There are three bills pending on this. One of them says a complete study of the benefits and costs need to be made before increasing our electric bills like they have planned.

One of them is co-sponsored by Linda Greenstein, a legislator with whom I have worked with on teacher issues. I think she has the public interest at heart.

Does this sound like the power company was in cahoots with big tech to try to pull one off the New Jersey public? That’s exactly what they were doing.

[summer_in_TX]

5. Glad the article mentions the water it uses to cool the plants.

It still overlooked the water wasted for each 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity generated to fuel AI. If the electricity is produced by natural gas, 40 gallons of water are required. If it's produced by coal plants, a whopping 90 gallons are needed. (Solar and wind do not require water, at least directly, to produce electricity.)

Every regulatory body at a minimum should require these to be built using the highest efficiency standards possible and methodology that produces the least possible amount of heat so less water is needed to cool it.

[Aussie105]

6. Blinded by the profit motive.

A lot of human activity has negative impacts on the environment and natural resources.

But while there is a potential buck in it, a blind eye is turned.
(Global warming, plastics pollution, mining waste, oil drilling, depleting or contaminating underground water - you name it, the profit motive is blinding most.)

[Karasu]

7. ...And motherfucking Republicans are trying to ban all regulation of this shit for 10 FUCKING YEARS.

Last edited Wed May 28, 2025, 02:06 AM - Edit history (1)

If that shit goes through, we are utterly fucked.

[Melon]

8. How do you stop technology without falling behind to those who don't?

They tried to stop the car. There were protests from the horse and buggy crowd.

We should never build coal plants. Investment should be nuclear or possibly gas over the field areas.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

10. This is the real question at hand. If you consider the impact of the Internet on the last...

...quarter century--both good and bad--you have some inkling of the impact AI is going to have on the next. We are in this moment confronted with how to regulate it, develop it, and limit its impact on both us and our environment. These will all be difficult tasks.

Interestingly, AI will likely be the tool we use to solve the issues presented by AI.

For now though, what do we do? We can't afford to fall behind, but can we afford the impacts? There is precisely a 0% chance that this Administration and this congress will lift a finger to protect the environment or require companies to allow any visibility into their actions. Consumer behavior will be almost impossible to control as AI queries will happen on their behalf unbeknownst to them in so many cases.