I was writing an article the other day, when a friend suggested I used AI to speed up the process. My initial response was “why would I? I’m a writer.” However I could see the attraction; it would undoubtedly have got the job done quickly, leaving time for other things.
However there is a big problem with AI, which seems to be rarely mentioned. AI is enormously power hungry, using vast energy for small tasks. AI is not the only energy hungry newcomer; bitcoin, and other virtual currencies are similarly problematic. As is social media.
In a bid to check the energy use of our websites, I visited a site called www.websitecarbon.com. This clever tool allows you to how much energy a website uses. While I was reassured that the websites I manage weren’t too energy heavy, my halo moment quickly disappeared when I put social media into the mix. Facebook and Instagram have a huge footprint, using 78% and 89% more energy than the average webpage, and run on servers powered by fossil-fuels. From the Website Carbon Calculator I also gleaned the following:
– The internet consumes 3.5% of all electricity used globally, and accounts for 1.32% of all global emissions. (Source: Our World in Data)
- – The International Energy Agency predicts that electricity demand from energy centres worldwide will double by 2030. (Source: IEA site)
- – Transfer size has increased by 64%. Desktop and mobile sites are nearly 1mb heavier than they were seven years ago. (Source: HTTP Archive)
Electric cars are also increasing our need for electricity. As renewables make up on average just over 18% of our power, we cannot yet produce enough green energy to cope. With AI and social media added to the mix, we lengthen our reliance on fossil-fuel generation, opening a cohesive argument for the need for new nuclear power stations.
Our internet use has become like a giant pac-man, greedily gobbling up every crumb of energy it can. So before you reach out to Chat GPT or upload videos and photos online, think do I really need to do this?
