July 8, 2025|
AI
|5 months agoAI industry's hidden environmental costs under scrutiny in Geneva
Ahead of AI for Good summit, experts highlight concerning environmental impact of artificial intelligence infrastructure
AI
Generated IllustrationKey Takeaways
AI
- In May 2025, 84% of requests to conversational robots were processed by models with totally opaque environmental footprints.
- Weekly users of ChatGPT doubled to 800 million in just four months.
- Data center power consumption grew by 12% annually between 2017 and 2023.
- Data center energy consumption grew four times faster than global electricity demand between 2017 and 2023.
- Generative AI consumes 20 to 30 times more energy than traditional AI to answer a factual question.
By The Numbers
945 TWh
Projected annual energy consumption by 2030
60 TWh
Annual energy consumption of Switzerland
900 TWh
Annual energy consumption of Japan
They Said
"Our future is a race between the growing power of our technology and the wisdom with which we use it."
"Thereâs a real disconnect between the interfaces we use â such as ChatGPT or Siri â and the hardware reality of the servers that run them."
1
Geneva Confronts the Black Box
2
The Voracious Appetite of Generative Models
3
Efficiency Traps and the Jevons Paradox
4
Dirty Power Behind the Digital Curtain
5