The US has the most data centers today, with 33 percent of the world’s approximately 8,000 data centers. It’s also the country with the most Bitcoin mining. The IEA forecasts a “rapid pace” of growth for data center electricity consumption in the US over the next couple of years, rising from roughly 4 percent of US demand in 2022 to 6 percent by 2026.
ALL data center energy usage only makes up 4-6% of US energy use.
Most tech firms that run data centers don’t reveal what percentage of their energy use processes A.I. The exception is Google, which says “machine learning” — the basis for humanlike A.I. — accounts for somewhat less than 15 percent of its data centers’ energy use.
So AI energy use is maybe less than one percent of total US energy use if we extrapolate from the upper range of data center use and apply the relative usage of data centers of one of the leading AI development firms.
Yeah, this definitely seems like the “AI Boogeyman” is on par with other contributing factors for why energy grids are struggling. /s
Maybe we should be taking a closer look at passive device energy usage given double digit percentages of home energy use (35% of total energy use) goes to “energy vampires”. Though maybe that version of the article might have received less clicks?
ALL data center energy usage only makes up 4-6% of US energy use.
So AI energy use is maybe less than one percent of total US energy use if we extrapolate from the upper range of data center use and apply the relative usage of data centers of one of the leading AI development firms.
Yeah, this definitely seems like the “AI Boogeyman” is on par with other contributing factors for why energy grids are struggling. /s
Maybe we should be taking a closer look at passive device energy usage given double digit percentages of home energy use (35% of total energy use) goes to “energy vampires”. Though maybe that version of the article might have received less clicks?