The development of artificial intelligence has accelerated rapidly in recent years, and as a result, data centers – which power these technologies – are becoming increasingly important. They process massive amounts of data and perform complex calculations so that users can receive responses from various digital tools, including the widely used chatbot “ChatGPT.” However, as technology advances, so do concerns about data centers’ energy consumption and their impact on the environment.
The science news portal New Scientist recently highlighted that artificial intelligence data centers can significantly impact the environment – the heat generated by their operations can raise temperatures in nearby areas and potentially affect millions of people. These issues bring to the forefront the discussion of how sustainable the rapidly growing artificial intelligence infrastructure is.
Modris Greitāns, Director and senior Researcher at the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science and a member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, discusses this topic in greater detail. He notes that discussions about the environmental impact of AI data centers are not new: “As early as three years ago, at the Baltic Intellectual Cooperation Conference held in Latvia, where energy issues were discussed, concerns were raised that artificial intelligence data centers could significantly heat up the surrounding environment,” notes Modris Greitāns.
At the same time, there is often another concern voiced in society – that artificial intelligence could surpass humans in almost every field in the future. However, Modris Greitāns emphasizes that the human brain remains an extremely efficient “computing system.”
“The efficiency of the human brain is tens of thousands of times greater, and its energy consumption is thousands of times lower than that of artificial intelligence systems,” explains Modris Greitāns. This means that, although artificial intelligence is capable of processing massive amounts of data and helping to solve complex problems, the human brain remains a unique and highly efficient information-processing mechanism. Therefore, in discussions about the development of artificial intelligence, the question of balance between technological progress, energy efficiency, and sustainability is becoming increasingly important.
Listen to the recording (starting at 34:30) here – In Latvian