How much more water and power does AI computing demand? Tech firms don't want you to know

Every time someone uses ChatGPT to write an essay, create an image or advise them on planning their day, the environment pays a price. A query on the chatbot that uses artificial intelligence is estimated to require at least 10 times more electricity than a standard search on Google. If all Google searches similarly used generative AI, they might consume as much electricity as a country the size of Ireland, calculates Alex de Vries, the founder of Digiconomist, a website that aims to expose the unintended consequences of digital trends. Yet someone using ChatGPT or another artificial intelligence application has no way of knowing how much power their questions will consume as they are processed in the tech companies' enormous data centers. De Vries said the skyrocketing energy demand of AI technologies will no doubt require the world to burn more climate-warming oil, gas and coal.