Google reveals just how harmful AI actually is

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Artificial intelligence's massive energy demands are back under scrutiny after Google released its latest environmental report, revealing that AI has caused the company's carbon emissions to soar by nearly 50% over the past five years.

The power demands of AI technology like Google's Gemini chatbot are so large that they threaten to jeopardize the tech giant's clean energy goals set to fight climate change. Three years ago, Google set a goal to be net-zero carbon-emissions by 2030, meaning it won't release more harmful gases into the atmosphere than it removes.

But new data reveals that far from decreasing, Google's emissions have actually skyrocketed by 48% since 2019.

In its annual sustainability report published on Tuesday, Google said its 2030 goals were highly ambitious, adding that the advent of AI will make them harder to achieve.

The report states that our approaches will need to continue to evolve and navigate significant uncertainties, including uncertainty about the future environmental impacts of AI, which are complex and difficult to predict. Moreover, solutions to some key global challenges do not currently exist and will depend heavily on the broader clean energy transition.

Google said its emissions will rise further before falling toward its goal because it's now focused on building and developing AI products, which appears to be part of an industry-wide trend in which other tech companies are warning about AI's massive energy demands.

Earlier this year, OpenAI head Sam Altman warned that future versions of ChatGPT will require an energy revolution to sustain the technology. Speaking at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos in January, the AI ​​chief said progress would require major advances in nuclear fusion, which has so far proven difficult to achieve.

There's no way to get there without breakthroughs, he said, pointing to the nearly limitless energy potential of nuclear fusion, which mimics the natural reactions that occur inside the sun to produce what some scientists call the Holy Grail of clean energy, and that spurs us to invest even more.

Altman has already personally invested nearly $400 million in US-based fusion startup Helion Energy, which he hopes can start producing electricity on a commercial scale by 2028. Others in the industry worry that's still decades away.

Microsoft is also a major investor in Helion Energy, last year becoming the first company in the world to sign a deal to buy fusion energy to power its AI projects.

Google's latest environmental report doesn't mention fusion specifically, but it does mention emerging technologies that could help it achieve its climate goals.

The report argues that the emergence of AI as a major focus in the tech industry could even spark a renewed focus on clean energy solutions, and advanced models could even lead to breakthroughs in renewable and clean energy technologies.

The report states that AI has great potential to advance climate action: AI could help mitigate 5 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030… Through our products, we aim to empower individuals, cities, and other partners to collectively reduce 1 gigaton of carbon-equivalent emissions per year by 2030, and continue to develop technologies that help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-energy-needs-google-climate-b2573362.html The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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