Ceres Power’s executive director of technology has cautioned that greater electrical consumption may emerge from the increased usage of artificial intelligence technologies for efficiency.
Caroline Hargrove commented, “What bothers me is the amount of energy consumption if I am utilizing ChatGPT for simple questions” at an IOT and operating the Digital Revolution session discussing the state of the energy industry today.
 Hargrove serves as CTO of Ceres Power, which creates clean energy technologies, such as green hydrogen electrolysis facilities.
According to a January analysis by the International Energy Agency, a standard Google search consumes 0.3 watts of power electricity on a typical basis, whereas a ChatGPT request costs 2.9 watt-hours.
The study estimated that integrating this technology into nine billion internet searches daily would need an extra ten terawatt-hours of electricity annually.
More generally, according to the IEA assessment, the artificial intelligence sector is anticipated to have developed phenomenally by 2026, consuming at least ten times as much electricity as it did in 2023.
 Hargrove warned that improper management of this usage could have the unintended consequence of increasing our energy consumption.
As much as I support utilizing data to improve everything fully, she added that we should also use it to cut back on what we consume because new toys might have a negative impact when people adopt them quickly.
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Corporate sustainability director of the technological corporation Cisco, Mary de Wysocki, made an identical argument, saying that we must utilize AI responsibly and not just because it seems fun.
While this was going on, Bertrand Piccard, the founder and chief executive officer of the environmentalist non-profit Solar Impulse Foundation, claimed that, with proper management, artificial intelligence (AI) may be an excellent tool for lowering energy use.
Employing this sort of technology, Piccard demonstrated intelligent power networks that combine fluctuating energy from renewable sources with storage, distribution, and consumption, resulting in nearly zero energy loss.
He added, “So [these are] the aspects that bring me hope.”
In March, the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) group released a paper that examined the potential risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) in light of the climate crisis. One such risk was the device’s increasing energy consumption.
The group suggested that authorities ensure that technology businesses are open and honest about the energy they use and the carbon footprint their AI models emit based on their results.
Governments should implement these transparency laws, according to CAAD, and impose “clear, harsh consequences” on breached companies.
