The leap in emissions is largely due to energy-guzzling data centers and supply chain emissions necessary to power artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The report estimated that in 2023, Google’s data centers alone account for up to 10% of global data center electricity consumption. Their data center electricity and water consumption both increased 17% between 2022 and 2023.

Google released 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide just last year, 13% higher than the year before.

Climate scientists have shown concerns as Big Tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft continue to invest billons of dollars into AI.

  • MouselemmingEnglish
    453·
    4 months ago

    Or how about cutting back on the idiotic and venal misuse of poorly-developed AI?

    • gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      76·
      4 months ago

      The technology is promising, it’s just not remotely ready for what they’re trying to use it for, and may never be in its current iteration (transformer-based LLMs). Like, yes, an AI will probably eventually be able to read many articles from search and integrate that information together in a useful way, but right now it’s almost as likely to just start making shit up halfway through and tell you to eat glue lmao.

      The problem is that AI is the new corporate buzzword like web was back during the dot com bubble. The web did end up being massively successful, but it just wasn’t ready for like 90% of what investors wanted from it back then.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      there are still going to be a lot of people who need power though. Cutting the US of AI isn’t going to magically remove coal plants from the grid, it’s going to do nothing actually. We need to be building new plants, period.

      • mindlesscrollyparrot@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        We need to be transitioning to zero carbon as fast as possible, period, and even that isn’t good enough. Moderating our energy consumption is vital. There is a cliff at the end of the road and business as usual means driving on down the road.

        I am not saying that we need to turn off our lights and heating. I am saying that we first-worlders use a lot of power on frivolous things that we absolutely can live without.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          4 months ago

          i don’t fundamentally disagree with you, but you need to recognize this includes a global perspective. You think china is going to 1/10th is electricity consumption in 20 years? Fuck no.

          You think russia is going to do this? It probably won’t entirely out of spite for NATO.

          we can focus on this in america, locally, but we need to be in a position to be capable of doing it first. Notably, having a green grid would be a good start. Or at least, an increasingly green grid, which we do currently have, though not to a massively significant degree.

          Also, i didn’t realize i had such a good oneliner “The US of AI” what a fucking statement lmao. I’m sure i meant this as “removing AI from the US” but it sounds funnier the other way.

    • jorp@lemmy.worldEnglish
      911·
      4 months ago

      I think it’s unfair to call it poorly-developed, the rush to market it and apply it in every corner is driven entirely by capitalist speculation, the engineers and scientists working on developing these systems are not to blame

      • MouselemmingEnglish
        9·
        4 months ago

        Are you happier with “inadequately-developed”?

        In both cases I was referring to the fact we’re letting the equivalent of a toddler run amok while being exploited by greedy capitalists and trained by fascists. It’s a very smart toddler but that just makes things worse.

        • jorp@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          4 months ago

          oh yes I’m not excited about humans being replaced by bias amplifying machines with corporate morals