Science and Technology; Emerging Technology
The emergence of AI’s advancement brings some serious environmental concerns. Discuss in the context of the Indian Scenario.
AI has the potential to transform climate change efforts. However, Google’s annual environment report revealed a 13% increase in its emissions footprint in 2023 compared to the previous year due to the usage of AI tools.
Emergence of AI’s advancement brings some serious environmental concerns
1. Energy consumption
- AI tools are deployed more widely, their impact on energy consumption worldwide is expected to rise sharply.
- Example: AI tools, such as those used in chatbots, consume significantly more energy than regular Google searches.
2. Energy Intensive
- AI queries can use 10 to 33 times more energy than a typical search, with image-based AI searches consuming even more.
3. Water demand High
- The increased heat demands more powerful cooling systems in data centers leading to a high demand of water.
- Example: AI models process and shift through more data, requiring more electrical signals and generating more heat.
4. Global Electricity Demand
- Data centers currently account for 1% to 1.3% of global electricity demand.
Indian Scenario
1) Rising of Data Centers
- The deployment of AI and data centers is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years.
2) Inadequate data on water consumption
- There is an increased demand on water resources as well, required for cooling of data centers.
Example: There is inadequate data on water consumption of data centers but the center that serves OpenAI’s GPT-4 model in Iowa (US) is reported to have consumed 6% of the district’s water supply in July 2022
3) No efficient processes
- The emerging trends about its environmental impact means that we should plan its expansion in a manner that minimizes the adverse impacts.
- The need for efficient planning and measures to minimize the environmental impact as AI and data centres expand in India.
The need to educate businesses and the public about the environmental impacts of AI and data centres can foster more sustainable practices and encourage responsible usage of technology.