Critically examine the environmental concerns associated with the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in present and in future.
(GS 3, 15 Marks, 250 Words)
Introduction:
Artificial intelligence (AI) as an emerging technology is expected to enable transformative changes across several domains, including attempts to find solutions to climate change. But the AI’s present and future bring up some serious environmental concerns.
Increased Electricity and Energy Consumption:
- Increased electricity consumption in data centres and supply chains due to greater deployment and usage of AI tools.
- A simple AI query could be using between 10 – 33 times more energy than a regular Google search. Image-based AI searches could be using even more energy.
Higher Water Consumption:
- There is an increased demand of water, required for cooling of data centres.
- Data centre that serves OpenAI’s GPT-4 model in Iowa (US) consumes about 5-6% of the district’s water supply.
Increased emissions footprint:
- Google reported a 13% increase in its emissions footprint in 2023. This is attributed mainly to the increased electricity and energy consumption.
- This trend was expected to continue in the coming years because of greater deployment and usage of its artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Reasons for higher emissions:
- AI models typically work much more than a simple Google search even when the same question is addressed to both.
- More work means a greater number of electrical signals are required when the computer is processing, storing, or retrieving data.
- More work also generates and releases more heat, which then requires more powerful air-conditioning or other forms of cooling in the data centres.
Concern for Future:
- As AI tools are deployed more widely, their impact on energy consumption worldwide is expected to rise sharply.
- Data centres account for 1-1.3% of the global electricity demand. This could double by 2026, according to recent projections of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
- Electricity consumption of data centres as a share of the national demand is increasing in several regions of the world.
Conclusion:
AI is a revolutionary technology, and will be widely used in India and the world. But the emerging trends about its environmental impact means that its expansion should be planned in a manner that minimises the adverse impacts. Simultaneously, it should be ensured that the companies running the data centres take every measure to make their processes efficient and minimise the emissions footprint.
