Image courtesy: The Kit; Photos: Getty Images, Chat GPT

In an ominous reminder of Climate crisis, Wildfires are raging in Los Angeles. It’s this week Thousands of buildings destroyedkilled at least five people and displaced nearly 180,000 residents. withdrawal. By Thursday afternoon, most of the fire was out. Be uncontrollableDuring efforts to fight the largest fire in the Pacific Palisades, have been obstructed From temporary lack of water

These deficiencies fueled a wave of social media posts about the impact of ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence. It’s on the environment: “Somewhere, the men who build AI chatbots are choosing the insides of the rocket ships they’ll use to leave Earth and we’re all burning up,” wrote artist and activist Matt Bernstein. Viral Instagram post. “A search on ChatGPT Uses 10 times the amount of energy. As a Google search. Training to develop an AI model The same amount of carbon dioxide 300 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco and five times the car’s lifetime emissions.

While some social media users suggested These AI technologies were relevant to the LA fire, the hydrants in Pacific Palisades were actually dry Due to high demandBecause municipal water systems aren’t designed to fight fires as fast-moving and widespread as those currently raging in Los Angeles.

But as AI technology continues to expand, experts say. Its energy And water will also be used. The servers that power the AI ​​chatbots. housed in data centers. And generate a lot of heat. (If you’re old enough, you remember how hot your desktop computer tower used to get. Basically, that’s what’s happening here.) Some data centers—like Microsoft in Iowa, That powered ChatGPT. – Rely on large amounts of water to cool the equipment, while others use a lot of electricity by installing large, air-conditioner-like units to keep the system cool enough.

A recent study From Washington Post And University of California researchers broke down how much energy ChatGPT, specifically, uses to perform basic functions. The study shows that AI chatbots are needed. About 18 oz of water — a little more than a bottle — using GPT-4 to produce one alone 100 word email. Producing one email per week over the course of a year can use about 27 liters of water, or about one and a half jugs. If one in ten Americans—about 16 million people—did that, ChatGPT would need more than 435 million liters of water. That’s the equivalent of a day and a half of water used by all Rhode Island households.

The researchers found that AI’s power consumption isn’t much better. Creating a 100-word email uses 0.14 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, which is equivalent to powering 14 LED light bulbs for one hour. If you do this once a week for a year? You’ll be using 7,500 kWh, or about the same amount of energy that more than nine households in DC use in an hour. And if 16 million Americans did this once a week for a year, it would use up to 121,517 megawatt-hours (MWh) or so of electricity. 20 days through every home in DC.

The findings are in line with a January 2024 report by the International Energy Agency, composed of representatives from 31 countries. The prophecy of which That, by 2026, energy consumed by global data centers, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency will more than double. Compared to 2022 levels. The report states that the total energy consumption will be comparable to the consumption of the entire country of Japan.

What does all this have to do with climate change and the current situation in Los Angeles? It’s easy: Our world is getting warmer every year.which increases extreme weather events. Conserving energy and reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we are releasing into the atmosphere can help reverse this trend. It’s the same with our water use: Conservation efforts. can help us address scarcity and deal more effectively with the impacts of climate events. So if you care about the future of our planet, stop using AI to write your boss the answer you’ve been avoiding. We both know it will take 60 seconds to do it ourselves.