How Much Electricity It Actually Takes to Use AI May Surprise You

By now, most of us should be vaguely aware that artificial intelligence is hungry for power. Even if you don't know the exact numbers, the charge that "AI is bad for the environment" is well-documented, bubbling from sources ranging from mainstream press to pop-science YouTube channels to tech trade media. Still, the AI industry as we know it today is young. Though startups and big tech firms have been plugging away on large language models (LLMs) since the 2010s, the release of consumer generative AI in late 2022 brought about a huge increase in AI adoption, leading to an unprecedented "AI boom." In under three years, AI has come to dominate global tech spending in ways researchers are just starting to quantify. In 2024, for example, AI companies nabbed 45 percent of all US venture capital tech investments, up from only nine percent in 2022. Medium-term, big-name consultant firms like McKinsey expect AI infrastructure spending to grow to $6.7 trillion by 2030; compare this to just ... Read full article.