Private electricity distributor, Rural Free State, workers conduct maintenance work on infrastructure in Villiers, approximately 30 kilometres from Frankfort on May 10, 2023. (Photo by Shiraaz MOHAMED / AFP)
The head of the United Nations called Tuesday on the surging artificial intelligence sector to prioritize sustainable energy for running power-hungry data centers.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a typical AI data center — sites where data is processed — uses the same amount of electricity as 100,000 regular homes.
With AI development booming, those demands are also rapidly expanding. The largest data centers will “soon use 20 times” the current demand, Guterres said, and “by 2030 data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today.”
“This is not sustainable,” Guterres said. “The technology sector must be out front. Today I call on every major tech firm to power all data centers with 100 percent renewables by 2030.”
And the UN boss noted that the artificial intelligence industry itself could be harnessed to help with some of the very improvements that are needed.
“AI can boost efficiency, innovation, and resilience in energy systems, and we must make profit of it. But it is also energy-hungry,” he said.
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According to a new UN report, data centers currently account for 1.5 percent of global electricity consumption. That is set to more than double by 2030.
“This is not sustainable, unless we make it so,” Guterres said.
AFP
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