Three Mile Island Reactor 1 Will Be Restarted to Power Microsoft Data Centers.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. "This website requires energy."

That’s true, it does, now let’s talk about “orders of magnitude."

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/10/nx-s1-5028558/artificial-intelligences-thirst-for-electricity

Artificial intelligence's thirst for electricity
July 10, 20245:09 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Dara Kerr

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KERR: When this process happens, a lot of energy is consumed. AI uses far more electricity from those data centers than traditional internet use, like posting on social media or storing our photos in the cloud. A majority of that electricity involves burning fossil fuels.

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KERR: These emissions contribute to climate change, and Google notes a stunning revelation deep within its new, 86-page sustainability report - the company's total greenhouse gas emissions increased nearly 50% over the last five years. It says that's in a large part due to its growing AI push.

ALEX HANNA: There's a lot of people out there that talk about existential risk around AI, about a rogue AI thing that somehow gets control of nuclear weapons or whatever. That's not the real existential risk. We have an existential risk right now. It's called climate change, and AI is palpably making it worse.

KERR: Alex Hanna used to work on Google's Ethical AI team. She left the company over the handling of a research paper that highlighted the environmental costs of AI. Hanna now works at the Distributed AI Research Institute. In its report, Google says that as it continues to add more AI into its products, that, quote, "reducing emissions may be challenging." Google declined an interview with NPR. This spike in greenhouse gas emissions is a big change for Google, which has an ambitious climate pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2030.

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