Increasing use of artificial intelligence in everyday Internet search functions, along with AI’s application in more complex operations, is expected to make unprecedented demands on the energy grid. A ChatGPT prompt demands about 10 times more electricity than a Google search. Generating one AI image uses as much energy as fully charging a smartphone.
These functions are increasingly integrated into everyday Internet use, through tools like Google’s Gemini, Amazon’s Rufus and other AI assistants. “We’ve seen over the last couple of decades a fairly steady increase in the amount of electricity that’s used for computing,” says Tony Dutzik of the Frontier Group, a think tank focused on the environment.
Functions such as video streaming and cloud storage have already increased electricity demands. But those increases have come at more or less predictable increments. AI tools like ChatGPT rely on large language models trained to respond to queries in ways that are legible to humans, which increases the complexity of the task. “AI is the place where you begin to see these projections of exponential growth,” Dutzik says.
Cryptocurrency mining, too, involves repetitive, energy-intensive computing. Bitcoin miners essentially compete to solve mathematical puzzles through digital trial and error. In places such as Pennsylvania, people have revived abandoned gas wells to power computers used to collect cryptocurrencies like bitcoin around the clock. Incoming President Donald Trump has vowed to adopt more crypto-friendly policies in the U.S.
Researchers are still working to understand the full scope of energy demands created by AI and cryptocurrency. Much of the tech is fueled by private companies, which only share partial information about their energy use. Even with expected improvements to the energy efficiency of nascent technology like generative AI, industry observers say the energy impact of AI will grow exponentially in the coming years.
