AI data centers could soon become a scourge for the energy industry

[Alfonso Maruccia]

WTF?! Arm's CEO has sounded a warning bell about the energy requirements needed to advance AI algorithms. He cautions that in a few years, "AI data centers" could require so much electricity that it could jeopardize the US power grid.

Arm CEO Rene Haas has highlighted the unsustainable energy demand of AI technology, warning of potential severe consequences if significant breakthroughs are not achieved soon. Speaking before the announcement of a $110 million funding program for AI research at universities in the US and Japan, Haas emphasized the urgent need for effective research to prevent stagnation in AI development.

According to Haas, US-based AI companies currently consume around four percent of the country's overall power. However, by 2030, the operation of chatbots and remote generative services in AI data centers could require as much as 20 to 25 percent of the entire US power grid. Haas particularly emphasized the "insatiable" energy demand of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

These dire predictions regarding AI energy consumption are increasingly prevalent, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) projecting that this year's power consumption for AI data centers will be 10 times higher than it was in 2022. Despite being consumer-oriented web services, chatbots exhibit significantly higher power requirements compared to simple Google search queries.

The IEA estimates that a single ChatGPT request consumes almost 10 times as much energy as a Google search. If Google were to adopt LLMs for its Search service, the company would require an additional 10 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power per year. A recent report in The New Yorker stated that ChatGPT consumes more than half a million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, whereas the average US household uses just 29 kilowatt-hours in the same timeframe.

The US government, along with government authorities worldwide, will likely be compelled to intervene and impose strict limits on power consumption for both traditional and AI data centers, as noted in the IEA report. Haas suggested that both hardware accelerators and AI algorithms need to become much more efficient, or this new era of relentless AI evolution may soon reach a halt.

However, improved efficiency could potentially be leveraged by Big Tech and AI companies to enhance AI computing capabilities while maintaining the same level of power consumption. Another potential solution to AI's energy challenge would involve expanding energy capacity, as major companies like Amazon are already trying to do.

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AI data centers could soon become a scourge for the energy industry

 

[Squid Surprise]

“warning of potential severe consequences if significant breakthroughs are not achieved soon”

People have declared doomsday prophecies like this for centuries yet… humanity always seems to find a way.

I would be more shocked if significant breakthroughs didn’t occur.

Underestimate human ingenuity at your own peril!

 

[NumberNine]

Fear drives engagement.

 

[3volv3d]

Straight roads. Trains. Trams. Less people. Zero cars. Less pointless jobs. Less Waste. Less Crime. Less Stress.

But your government and capitalism wants, more people, for more tax, for more stress, crime, hate, suicides, data centres that feed people 4 million cat memes a day.

The more we progress, the more pointless we and life seem to be. It's a freakin joke.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Straight roads. Trains. Trams. Less people. Zero cars. Less pointless jobs. Less Waste. Less Crime. Less Stress.

But your government and capitalism wants, more people, for more tax, for more stress, crime, hate, suicides, data centres that feed people 4 million cat memes a day.

The more we progress, the more pointless we and life seem to be. It's a freakin joke.

And yet... our standard of living has RISEN each and every year.... if it's all a joke, guess we're all laughing

The media will tell you how the "world has gone to sh*t"... but that's just because negative stuff sells...

You don't see the headline of "person gets married, starts family, and lives comfortable life" do you? Yet... that's what happens to the vast majority of people....

 

[yRaz]

And yet... our standard of living has RISEN each and every year.... if it's all a joke, guess we're all laughing

The media will tell you how the "world has gone to sh*t"... but that's just because negative stuff sells...

You don't see the headline of "person gets married, starts family, and lives comfortable life" do you? Yet... that's what happens to the vast majority of people....

Wtf are you talking about? I went from a 3 bedroom 3bath house for $800/m in 2019 to a 1 bedroom 1 bath for $1250/m. I'm also further from work and shopping centers. My diet has changed substantially to accommodate inflation and I haven't bought anything new aside from a backpack or tools for work in nearly 3 years. I bought a 6700xt in 2022.

 

[Dimitriid]

I think that before AI gets to that point, most corporations and investors will realize that they too are susceptible to good old Snake Oil salesmen and just stop throwing money at a tech that will probably only make more problems for them on a long enough timeline instead of solving them.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

We could always make more electricity but then the death cult of climate change wouldn't like that...

 

[daffy duck]

And yet... our standard of living has RISEN each and every year.... if it's all a joke, guess we're all laughing

The media will tell you how the "world has gone to sh*t"... but that's just because negative stuff sells...

You don't see the headline of "person gets married, starts family, and lives comfortable life" do you? Yet... that's what happens to the vast majority of people....

cough BS cough

 

[Squid Surprise]

cough BS cough

The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it

Very few think the world is making progress. In this article I am looking at the data to challenge the widespread negative sentiments.

ourworldindata.org

Try looking it up... the people living in poverty DECREASES every year... I know everyone loves to preach doom and gloom... but our world actually IS getting better. Now, if we could only end the senseless wars, it would be getting better even faster

Wtf are you talking about? I went from a 3 bedroom 3bath house for $800/m in 2019 to a 1 bedroom 1 bath for $1250/m. I'm also further from work and shopping centers. My diet has changed substantially to accommodate inflation and I haven't bought anything new aside from a backpack or tools for work in nearly 3 years. I bought a 6700xt in 2022.

Well, obviously we're looking at the world as a whole... there are always exceptions - and like everything, improvement doesn't go in a straight line... but in GENERAL, things really are getting better.

 

[mosu]

Just wait for AI getting into crypto...

 

[JamesBlond]

That is not True, they been testing the grid for around 15yrs with massive boosts to Computer power buy paying people to run mining rigs, these were the initial tests, now they know mining has Dropped 50% they can replace the old miners draw by Servers, once the rest of the miners fall away they will take up their usage.
Plus these guys love solar, wind.

 

[trents]

"We can now do this AI stuff! Now the challenge is inventing some kind of real world use for it to convince consumers they really need it."

 

[subnex]

I wonder whether this can be used advantageously. The energy production ratio to the consumption ratio varies substantiallly during the day, especially with renewables in the game. Efficient coal power plants can not rapidly adjudt their output, so expensive gas power plants are used to supply the energy required during peak usage and/or periods of low energy production by renewables. Could data centers adjust their power consumption to use less in peak times and more during times of over production, anf thereby using fewer gas power plants and more coal power? This especially on the training side, where response times to end users are not affected.