These four charts sum up the state of AI and energy

A new report from the International Energy Agency digs into the details of energy and AI, and I think it's worth looking at some of the data to help clear things up. Here are four charts from the report that sum up the crucial points about AI and energy demand. This point is the most obvious, but it bears repeating: AI is exploding, and it's going to lead to higher energy demand from data centers. "AI has gone from an academic pursuit to an industry with trillions of dollars at stake," as the IEA report's executive summary puts it. Data centers used less than 300 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2020.