But is AI’s energy use and impact on the Earth today worth the cost tomorrow? Will AI ultimately exacerbate an energy crisis—or push humanity toward a renewable future, preserving forests and restoring oceans along the way?
Trillion-dollar giants like Microsoft are planting flags in desert soil for new data centers and architecting a $100 billion “supercomputer” with OpenAI expected to have millions of specialized chips for intensive AI computations.
However, researchers warn that AI’s insatiable appetite for electricity and resources isn't sustainable, even if tech firms use renewable energy sources. In an interview, Robert Stoner, MIT researcher, energy council member, and director of the university’s Tata Center for Technology and Design, tells PCMag that tech firms are using up existing electricity sources and taking away from the grid faster than they can add to it.