Unlike Bitcoin mining or online shopping, AI can reduce the environmental impact of human activities. AI can improve climate models and find more efficient ways to apply digital technologies, reduce waste in transportation, or reduce carbon and water use. For example, one study found that AI-powered smart homes could reduce a home's CO2 emissions by up to 40%.
A recent Google project found that artificial intelligence, which processes atmospheric data quickly, can guide pilots to choose a flight path that leaves the fewest trails. With more than one-third of commercial aviation's impact on global warming attributable to aircraft trails, "if the entire aviation industry can take advantage of this AI breakthrough, the carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) saved by this discovery could be achieved by 2030," said D**e Patterson, professor emeritus of computer science at UC Berkeley will exceed the CO2 produced by all artificial intelligence. ”
As AI software and hardware use energy more efficiently, the carbon footprint of AI will soon level off and then begin to shrink. Since 2019, as the use of AI has increased, its share of energy use in Google's data centers has remained below 15%.
However, there are also many who are skeptical, saying that reducing the cost of resources sometimes increases their energy consumption in the long run. For example, if you widen the highway, people will use less fuel because the commute will be faster, but you will get more cars in. You'll consume more fuel than before. If home heating is 40% more efficient thanks to artificial intelligence, people may be able to heat their homes for longer.
If global electricity use is a bit abstract, data center water use is a more local, real problem – especially in drought-affected areas. In order to cool delicate electronics in the clean interior of a data center, the water must be free of bacteria and impurities, or it will stain the equipment. Google's data centers used 20% more water in 2022 than in 2021, and Microsoft's water usage increased by 34% over the same period. (Google's data centers host its Bard chatbot and other generative AI, and Microsoft's servers host ChatGPT and its more powerful siblings, GPT-3 and GPT-4.) All three of these software were developed by OpenAI, in which Microsoft is an investor. )
One day in the future, AI may be able – or legally obligated – to tell users that it will consume water and carbon for each different request. This may be a magical tool for governing the environment. For now, it's still early.
OpenAI released the first AI** model SORA