Eco-Disaster Averted? The Urgent Need to Address the Carbon Footprint of AI Systems

Artificial intelligence may sound like progress, but it could turn into an eco-disaster. The energy needed by artificial intelligence threatens to increase the world’s CO₂ emissions by several percent in five years.

The artificial intelligence revolution is leading to an increase in the use of fossil fuels in the latter half of the 2020s. Data centers running artificial intelligence programs consume a huge amount of electricity, and fossil plants are likely to be the first to respond to the dramatically increasing demand.

The gloomy outlook is based on two forecasts that have been reported internationally during the previous month.

News agency Reuters can be calculated from the figures presented

, that the demand for natural gas in the United States alone would increase by 11 percent in the next five years. In terms of emissions, this would mean approximately 150 million tons more carbon dioxide per year. Reuters cites the US-Canadian-Britspecialized in the energy sector investment bank Tudor Pickering Holtin

report. According to the bank, 11 percent is a pessimistic forecast, but even in the best possible case, the use of natural gas in the United States will increase by at least 3 percent The fact that the forecast specifically concerns the United States,is written open on the Oil Price website