There has been lots of commentary in recent months around the resources that data centres for artificial intelligence (AI) companies are gobbling up.
Microsoft, which has a partnership with ChatGPT, signed a deal to get electricity from the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the United States – in 1979 the scene of the most serious nuclear accident in that nation. That power will be used for its data centres, which are energy intensive at the best of times but have ramped up with the extra processing power used to answer AI queries from users.
For the same reason, Google’s carbon emissions increased 50 per cent over five years from 2019 to 2024 despite so many public pledges to reduce emissions. After all, the company is targeting reducing 50 per cent of its emissions by 2030.
And that’s before we get to the water used to cool those vital servers.
We got another view into the cost of AI advances this week, and it is a cost that may get business folks to sit up and take notice. According to Bloomberg News, Elon Musk’s firm xAI is burning through about $1 billion (€870 million) per month. That’s not a typo.
Granted, $1 billion isn’t what it was just a few years ago, but it remains an almost unfathomable amount of money. The report came as xAI seeks to raise $9.3 billion in fresh cash to fund its advances in the AI space, most of which will be gone in a few months.
It would be a huge shock if the company struggles to bring in the investment it is looking for. AI is the cool sector these days, and already upending the way we work and live day to day.
But at what cost? It’s not a Luddite argument to question if all this investment is really worth it. Sure, an app that can organise your calendar is nice to have. A program that can scan an X-ray and pick up fractures that a doctor may miss is most definitely positive.
But at a time when resources are already scarce and the environmental impact is known, there is a real question around whether the growth in AI, particularly for mundane tasks, is really worth it.
