ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS ALREADY WREAKING HAVOC ON GLOBAL POWER SYSTEMS

AI data centers are huge energy black holes, consuming as much energy as 30,000 homes – and their rapid growth is straining global grids. The numbers are astonishing: Sweden could see power demand from data centers roughly double over this decade.

 

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The rise of artificial intelligence is now turbocharging demand for bigger data centers, transforming the landscape and taxing the world’s energy grids.

Globally, there are more than 7,000 data centers built or in various stages of development, up from 3,600 in 2015, according to data from DC Byte, a market intelligence firm. By 2034, global energy consumption by data centers is expected to top 1,580 TWh, about as much as is used by all of India.

While tech companies are quick to point out that data centers account for less than 2% of global energy use even with all the expansion, an April report from Goldman Sachs estimates that figure could rise to 4% by the end of the decade. Any percentage point increase is monumental.

The biggest cloud services providers, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, have announced goals to run their data centers entirely on green energy. But some tech leaders like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have said an energy breakthrough — likely from nuclear power — is needed to adapt to this new picture. For now, the path forward remains unclear.

 

In the new season of Foundering, Bloomberg Technology’s narrative podcast, we dive deep into the story of Sam Altman and OpenAI to give listeners the material and analysis they need to come to their own conclusions about the CEO’s trustworthiness.

The world’s biggest record labels are suing two AI startups, taking an aggressive stance to protect their intellectual property against technology that makes it easy for people to generate music based on existing songs. ( Courtesy from Bloomberg News)