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Keeping generative AI models running requires astronomical amounts of electricity — and the United States' aging power grid is struggling to handle the load., experts are worried that the massive surge in interest in the tech could prove to be a major infrastructure problem. Transformers used to turn raw electricity into usable power are on average 38 years old and have quickly become a prime source of power outages.
And it's not just power that's proving to be a bottleneck for generative AI — the data centers that power it also needby Boston Consulting Group, demand for data centers is rising at a brisk pace in the US, and is expected to make up 16 percent of total US power consumption by the year 2030. Whether the country's aging infrastructure will be able to support such a massive load remains to be seen.
"The industry itself is looking for places where there is either proximate access to renewables, either wind or solar, and other infrastructure that can be leveraged," he added, "whether it be part of an incentive program to convert what would have been a coal-fired plant into natural gas, or increasingly looking at ways in which to offtake power from nuclear facilities."
Tech leaders have floated exotic ideas for meeting sky-high energy demands. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told audiences at this year's World Economic Forum that the AI models of tomorrowChipmakers are also hoping to reduce power demand by increasing the efficiency of AI chips. But whether any of those efforts will be enough to meet the seemingly insatiable power demands of AI companies is anything but certain.Washington Post Launches AI to Answer Climate Questions, But It Won't Say Whether AI Is Bad for the Climate
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