A report from Morgan Stanley suggests the datacenter industry is on track to emit 2.5 billion tons by 2030, which is three times higher than the predictions if generative AI had not come into play.

The extra demand from GenAI will reportedly lead to a rise in emissions from 200 million tons this year to 600 million tons by 2030, thanks largely to the construction of more data centers to keep up with the demand for cloud services.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    When I think “AI will end humanity” I was thinking a sort of Skynet type deal, not… this. Sigh.

    • ampersandcastles@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Oh, this isn’t it. Capitalists have been doing this long before AI. Which is why I don’t understand why people are attacking AI so hard, tbh.

      • msage@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        It’s just a proxy hate.

        Just like crypto before that.

        Or any other crazy bullshit the elite drops bags of money on instead of anything reasonable.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    …and all so they can steal our collective content, creativity, and every piece of individual thought or content we’ve ever communicated online.

    …with the aim of exploiting it to make billionaires richer.

      • zout@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        Still, open source AI will still help the same companies getting richer because the needed computing power can be found in these data centers. The companies don’t even care if it’s AI, crypto or whatever the next thing is, as long as it needs lots of power and bandwidth.

  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    the most fucked up part about this is that it’s not like regular people account for more than a fraction of the AI usage, most of it is just other companies using it to replace workers or just… paying for AI usage instead of fucking paying a stock photo company instead…

    i hate corporations i hate corporations i hate corporations

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Looks like AI will eliminate any gains we have in climate change. Too bad for us.

      • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        Over time, it is. It’s eliminating the source. In Terminator, Matrix, and others they say that the AI took a split second to act, but our AI doesn’t have those connections. It’s working with what it’s got.

    • akwd169@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Too bad for us, yeah.

      The people benefiting from this have more than enough money to stay comfortable and live a long life if the environment becomes hazardous, deadly and inimical to human life.

      It’s the masses who will suffer, who will be forced to live in tiny bunkers just to survive and work for the capitalists, never going outside until an extreme weather event wipes them away despite their budget bunker

      And the capitalist ruling class will say “oh look more space to expand my summer bunker”

    • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      That already happened with Crypto.

      AI will use less power over time, as hardware gets faster and we approach a ‘good enough’ level of computation power, similar to Desktops/Laptops - outside gaming, electrical power for the average desktop has only decreased since Sandy Bridge, a 2600K is still good enough for the average desktop, it can still even pull punches gaming.

      Crypto, by design, will never decrease in power use and only and forever increase.

  • مهما طال الليل@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Consider this: climate change is being accelerated at a time when we are overdue to reduce it and what we are getting out of it is plagiarism and wrong answers.

  • kersplomp@programming.dev
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    2 months ago

    God damnit not this swill again. It’s not even close to triple, it’s like 15%. Read. The. Reports.

    For real. Why does this misinformation keep spreading? I have the actual real numbers right in front of me now.

    And it’s the same as what MIT Technology Review reported and what Google reported publicly.

    The EU’s CSRD requires most of these companies to disclose their carbon emissions. So just go look it up, ya taints.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You are not thinking cumulatively.

      It’s not even close to triple, it’s like 15%.

      1.15^7=2.66

      From the article

      “emit 2.5 billion tons by 2030, which is three times higher than the predictions if generative AI had not come into play.”

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I build the infrastructure that these data centers need to connect to the internet. Our projected power consumption is at least tripling from last year which was itself double the year before, and that’s only the power draw for the fiber optic infrastructure connecting these data centers together. They’re also building a ridiculous amount of computing power in those data centers which is another massive increase in power consumption.

      There are some kind-of green efforts in progress to mitigate a bit of the environmental impacts of that increase in demand but most of what I have seen personally is just more draw from the local utility company. I have serious doubts about any data that indicates that tripling power consumption is not a major environmental problem.

      • kersplomp@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        If you’re the one working on this infrastructure, then why are the reports saying that it’s only 13%? Are you guys lying on the forms?

        • krashmo@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I have no idea where that data comes from and that’s exactly the point I’m making. It doesn’t match my personal experience at all.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Few months ago it was bitcoin mining. They both need curtailment for other reasons as well.

  • shirro@aussie.zone
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    2 months ago

    I am curious who buys generative AI services? The consumers seem to be people making memes or questionable porn with free services. It can’t prepare food, unblock drains or tile a bathroom. You can’t use it for anything like medicine, law or engineering where you would be professionally liable if it fucks up. How is it sustainable?

    • WasPentalive
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      2 months ago

      It’s good for making up stories and making suggestions. I worked with chatGPT on how to power up a mothballed Galaxy Class starship. We created the procedure to bring the ship from inert and vacuumed to ready for warp flight.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      My company buys it. No idea what they use it for since I work in IT and I don’t use it for anything.

    • B0rax@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      A lot of companies buy it so their employees have acres to it. Like Microsoft 365 copilot for example

    • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I see a fair amount of online adverts that use them. Usually the kind you might get orbiting an article of some kind, just using AI images as their hook.

  • blazera@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I doubt the data centers are generating much of any co2. Fossil fuel power plants are.

  • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    U.S. vehicles currently emit 2 billion tons. So that’s very bad news.

    However – I think 2030 is waaay too far in the future to predict anything about AI.

    • zout@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      Tell me about it. In the Netherlands wind farms are built, and, on paper, these datacenter companies buy up all of the energy from them. Meanwhile, the reason why these wind farms were built is to burn less fossil fuels, but that won’t work now because of all the extra energy consumption.

    • mub@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Power is only part of it. Concrete production is a huge greenhouse gas source.