In this article for The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert discusses the significant energy consumption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and their environmental implications.

Kolbert interviews Alex de Vries, author of the blog Digiconomist, developer of the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, and currently an employee of the Netherlands’ central bank. According to de Vries, the energy demand for AI will only increase in the coming years. Already, ChatGPT is using more than half a million kilowatt-hours of electricity to respond to more than 200 million daily requests – that’s 17,000 times more than the 29 kilowatt-hours a day consumed by US households. As a result of this increase in electricity usage, experts are estimating an equivalent increase in water usage, electronic waste production, and carbon emissions.

De Vries is not alone in raising the alarm. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO voiced similar concerns at Davos. He said, “I think we still don’t appreciate the energy needs of this technology…We need fusion or we need, like, radically cheaper solar plus storage, or something, at massive scale – like, a scale that no one is really planning for”

Editor’s Note: This article raises an important question: How can the world reach net zero if it keeps inventing new ways to consume energy? How can elites claim that their “proposals” for cutting down carbon emissions are for the environment when they are also promoting energy-heavy technologies like AI? [See Netherlands move to shut down farms to meet climate goals, Canada, Ireland Issue Climate Restrictions Similar To The Netherlands, California Gas Car Ban Shows What’s Wrong With Impulsive Climate Change Policies, 15-Minute Cities: From COVID Lockdowns to Climate Lockdowns, Bill Gates Fear Mongers Again, Predicts Dour Outlook for Humanity In Light of Climate Change, Sells High-Tech Solutions Made By His Companies].

With this background, it now becomes clear. The push towards the widespread use of “renewal energy”, is not for environmental sustainability. It is a quest to overcome the limitations of fossil fuel in the quest to develop advanced AI. [Also read Net-Zero Pushers Are Ignoring The Waste Generated By “Green Energy”, Electric Vehicles and Their Dirty Secret, The Scam that is COP28, The Ultimate Goal of COVID and the Climate Hysteria: Billionaires Controlling The World].

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