Google Reveals the Bad Effects of AI on the Environment
Morrissey Technology – Google just released its environmental impact report for 2023 and the results are worrying. Google’s greenhouse gas emissions are increasing rapidly amidst the company’s priorities now focusing on AI. According to the report, Google’s total greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 48% since 2019. Even though Google has set a target to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030.
Last year alone, Google produced 14.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution which marked a 13% increase from the previous year. This figure is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide emissions emitted by 38 gas-fired power plants each year.
Google said the rise in carbon dioxide pollution was influenced by electricity use in data centers and supply chain emissions. Electricity consumption, primarily from data centers, contributes nearly one million tonnes of pollution to Google’s carbon footprint by 2023.
Data centers, especially those used to train AI, require enormous amounts of electrical power. Google is currently aggressively adding generative AI features to a number of its products, and they are starting to worry about the negative effects of AI on their environmental impact reports.
“As AI becomes more integrated into our products, reducing emissions may become a challenge due to increased energy demands resulting from greater AI computing, and emissions associated with expected improvements to our technical infrastructure,” Google said.
Electricity consumption in Google data centers last year increased 17%, and the Alphabet subsidiary expects the trend to continue. According to Google estimates, its data centers will contribute almost 10% of total global electricity consumption by 2023.
To reduce AI’s detrimental impact on the environment, Google says it is trying to make its AI models, hardware, and data centers more efficient. Google also plans to use carbon pollution-free energy by 2030.
Google isn’t the only tech company concerned about the impact of AI on its environmental ambitions. Microsoft’s greenhouse gas emissions last year rose 30% compared to 2020.