AI Is on an Energy Bender

Recently, I organised a Caples webinar to discuss the escalating environmental costs of digital technology.

One of the speakers was Professor Graham Hitchen of Loughborough University. He told us that AI is burning energy in ever-increasing quantities. Every 100 days, it’s doubling the amount of juice it’s using. Pretty soon AI will be swallowing up more electricity than Iceland. Then it will be Norway, Denmark, Sweden… When I went online to try to find out why no one is really talking about this, I couldn’t get any clear answers. So I turned to AI to ask why AI is flying under the radar. I asked it to write like a journalist rather than a professor.

Me: The World Economic Forum says that the energy consumed by the growing use of AI is doubling every 100 days. Why don’t more people know about what’s happening?

ChatGPT: Here’s why no one is talking about it:

The way AI uses energy is totally invisible to the average Joe. They see it as gadgetry and conveniently forget this gadgetry is holed up in warehouses the size of football pitches, whirring away quietly and eating up electricity by the megawatt. AI is a monster sitting right next to the national grid with a straw.

AI is moving faster than a Ferrari at Le Mans. One minute, it is barely able to identify a cat; the next, it is writing sonnets. But while we are marvelling at its progress, the environmental cost is being quietly parked on the sidelines, ignored and unregulated because we areall too busy being dazzled byits “potential.”

Companies selling AI don’t want you to see the bill. They are all about the wonders of automation and how it will change the world. Naturally, they are keeping quiet about the negatives, because If Greta Thunberg and the Stop Oilies got to know about it, there would be a lot more orange paint being thrown about.

Many tech companies are as transparent as London’s fog. Why would they want to spill the beans on how much energy they are using if all it does is scare people and get governments to take an interest? So, they are keeping quiet about it. Very quiet.

Most of us cannot say how much electricity we use in our own homes let alone a data centre. Unless the lights start flickering, the issue stays comfortably out of sight, out of mind. One day we are going to have to face the costs of those chatbots and recommendation engines but for the moment it is all being swept beneath the digital rug.

Me: As AI consumes ever more energy, how will these costs be passed on to the consumer, do you think?

ChatGPT: Come on, you know who is going to pay for AI. You, that’s who. And here’s why.

More complex AI products (like advanced language models or personalised recommendation engines) mean higher prices. There will be added fees for fancy features like image generation or real-time translations.

The AI services companies offer for free as a way of building user engagement will soon move behind paywalls. (Basic level ChatGPT is still free but don’t expect that to continue much longer.)

The moment companies start whacking up their prices to balance operating expenses, governments will start whacking them with taxes. Which the companies will deflect back onto you. Yes, the tech companies are trying to build more energy-efficient data farms but that will take time to have an effect. So, while you can, enjoy Google Maps and Waze, Alexa and Siri for free; soon you will be paying for them.

Me: Another environmentally problematic thing about AI is the colossal use of water needed to keep the servers cool and able to function. Do you think this could become a major issue?

ChatGPT: You are right, water usage by AI systemsis not widely discussed but awareness is bound to grow for these reasons:

More AI means more servers means more heat means more cooling. Server farms already get through a lot of water. Imagine pouring buckets onto an overheated cat engine only this time the engine is AI and the buckets are Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The problem is that in many areas, water is already scarce. People don’t want to share their drinking water with some power-hungry data centre that is busy crunching numbers for your ad feed. If this keeps up, we will see AI competing with entire towns over water supplies, and trust me, that will cause a fuss.

These data centres also pump back warmed water into local streams, making life miserable for the fish and upsetting ecosystems. It is only a matter of time before regulators come knocking, demanding AI find a way to cool itself down without hogging the local reservoir. The tech giants might start shelling out on alternative cooling technologies like liquid immersion cooling and/or building server farms in chillier climes, but these measures will take time and money. So don’t hold your breath.

Me: The readers of Aurora are all people in advertising and marketing and are at the forefront of digital transformation. What can they do to help manage what might soonbe unmanageable?

ChatGPT:

You don’t have to share or like absolutely everything. Every click feeds the beast. Every interaction you have with these AI systems drives more data, more processing, more energy. Treat streaming like a guilty pleasure: do it sparingly.

Next, start backing the companies that are actually trying to go green. Look out for those who have pledged to power their data centres with renewable energy or aremaking their algorithms less power-hungry. Use privacy-focused browsers that don’t track your every move like some creepy neighbour.

Yes, your old email accounts and those apps you don’t use, are guzzling energy too. Clear them out. Unsubscribe from mailing lists and switch off the AI features in apps where you don’t need them. You will save a whole load of unnecessary data processing and help the planet survive a little longer.

Ask your clients what they are doing to make their embrace of AI environmentally sustainable. And talk about the impact AI is having, especially in sectors like advertising. If more people share their knowledge about banging the drum for transparency, they could, en-masse, encourage greener practices and a shift towards more sustainable technologies.

Me: I see. A little more restraint plus a bit of digital housekeeping and we will be able to stop AI guzzling up the planet like an all-you-can-eat buffet? Hmmm. I can’t see it myself. But then you being an AI, you will be, uh… naturally optimistic, shall we say?

Patrick Collister is Custodian of The Caples Awards, formerly of Ogilvy London and Google. patrick@creative-matters.com