AI’s Energy Use in Context

OpenAI processes over 2.5 billion prompts daily, yet the power required for those prompts represents only a small slice of personal or global electricity consumption. When placed alongside other technologies, AI’s demand is dwarfed by Wi‑Fi, which would rank among the top 50 electricity users if it were a country. Historical comparisons show that AI’s current power draw is similar to the electricity used by television‑watching families in the 1980s.

Data‑center electricity consumption totals about 415 TWh per year, with AI accounting for roughly 10 % to 20 % of that figure. The majority—over half—supports enterprise and government cloud services, about 15 % fuels streaming video, and a tiny fraction (around 0.2 %) handles the massive volume of smartphone photos stored in the cloud.

Growth Trajectories and Future Demand

Data‑center power use is projected to double by the end of the decade, driven in part by AI workloads. Even if AI becomes the dominant consumer within data centers, its share of total global electricity would remain modest. Other emerging technologies, such as 5G networks and electric‑vehicle charging, are expected to consume far more power than AI in the coming years.

Water Consumption and Cooling Needs

Cooling AI‑related data‑center equipment uses about 100 GL of water annually—an amount comparable to the water spent on watering golf courses during rainy periods. A single 500 ml disposable water bottle could cool roughly 2,000 prompts, while a full flush of a toilet could sustain about 10 prompts per day for nearly five years.

Carbon Emissions Per Prompt

Each AI prompt generates approximately 0.03 grams of CO₂‑equivalent emissions, comparable to the carbon released in a single human breath. Ten prompts a day equal the emissions from a birthday‑cake candle or idling a car for less than a second. Scaling up, AI‑related emissions amount to roughly 0.07 % of the global total, similar to the emissions of the entire country of Denmark.

Localized Environmental Impacts

While AI’s overall resource footprint appears small on a planetary scale, the concentration of new data‑center construction can have pronounced effects on specific towns and ecosystems. The article notes that these localized impacts merit attention even as the broader numbers remain modest.

The analysis underscores that AI is neither the biggest nor the smallest environmental player; it occupies a middle ground that warrants balanced scrutiny as its usage expands.

Usado: News Factory APP - descubrimiento de noticias y automatización - ChatGPT para Empresas