A report from Morgan Stanley suggests the datacenter industry is on track to emit 2.5 billion tons by 2030, which is three times higher than the predictions if generative AI had not come into play.
The extra demand from GenAI will reportedly lead to a rise in emissions from 200 million tons this year to 600 million tons by 2030, thanks largely to the construction of more data centers to keep up with the demand for cloud services.
When I think “AI will end humanity” I was thinking a sort of Skynet type deal, not… this. Sigh.
I mean, global warming us slowly into extinction is a pretty AI way to go about it
Oh, this isn’t it. Capitalists have been doing this long before AI. Which is why I don’t understand why people are attacking AI so hard, tbh.
It’s just a proxy hate.
Just like crypto before that.
Or any other crazy bullshit the elite drops bags of money on instead of anything reasonable.
…and all so they can steal our collective content, creativity, and every piece of individual thought or content we’ve ever communicated online.
…with the aim of exploiting it to make billionaires richer.
This is only relevant to closed source AI. Not all AI is closed
Few months ago it was bitcoin mining. They both need curtailment for other reasons as well.
Love to burn down an acre of rain forest to generate a picture of an ape.
Fuck this “AI” shit
God damnit not this swill again. It’s not even close to triple, it’s like 15%. Read. The. Reports.
For real. Why does this misinformation keep spreading? I have the actual real numbers right in front of me now.
And it’s the same as what MIT Technology Review reported and what Google reported publicly.
The EU’s CSRD requires most of these companies to disclose their carbon emissions. So just go look it up, ya taints.
You are not thinking cumulatively.
It’s not even close to triple, it’s like 15%.
1.15^7=2.66
From the article
“emit 2.5 billion tons by 2030, which is three times higher than the predictions if generative AI had not come into play.”
I build the infrastructure that these data centers need to connect to the internet. Our projected power consumption is at least tripling from last year which was itself double the year before, and that’s only the power draw for the fiber optic infrastructure connecting these data centers together. They’re also building a ridiculous amount of computing power in those data centers which is another massive increase in power consumption.
There are some kind-of green efforts in progress to mitigate a bit of the environmental impacts of that increase in demand but most of what I have seen personally is just more draw from the local utility company. I have serious doubts about any data that indicates that tripling power consumption is not a major environmental problem.
If you’re the one working on this infrastructure, then why are the reports saying that it’s only 13%? Are you guys lying on the forms?
I have no idea where that data comes from and that’s exactly the point I’m making. It doesn’t match my personal experience at all.
Something something AI BAD, didn’t read.
I doubt the data centers are generating much of any co2. Fossil fuel power plants are.
Uhh, soo many datacenters run off wind. So this is pretty disingenuous
If everything is running on renewables, cool. Until then, there’s still the opportunity cost.
Power is only part of it. Concrete production is a huge greenhouse gas source.
U.S. vehicles currently emit 2 billion tons. So that’s very bad news.
However – I think 2030 is waaay too far in the future to predict anything about AI.
