“Let’s not exaggerate” concerns about artificial intelligence’s energy consumption, says Bill Gates

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Bill Gates defended the rapid increase in energy consumption caused by artificial intelligence systems, arguing that the technology would eventually offset the high consumption of electricity.

Speaking in London, Gates urged environmentalists and governments “not to overreact” over concerns about the massive amounts of energy required to run new generative artificial intelligence systems, as Big Tech companies like Microsoft race to invest tens of billions of dollars into huge new data centers.

Data centres will increase global electricity consumption by 2-6 per cent, the billionaire said.

“The question is, will AI accelerate the reduction by more than 6 percent? The answer is certainly,” said Gates, the Microsoft co-founder who is a prolific investor in companies developing sustainable energy and carbon reduction technologies.

In May, Microsoft admitted that its greenhouse gas emissions had increased by almost a third since 2020, largely due to data center construction.

Gates, who left Microsoft’s board in 2020 but remains an adviser to CEO Satya Nadella, said technology companies would pay a “green premium” – or higher price – for clean energy as they look for new energy sources, which has helped fuel its growth. and implementation.

“Tech companies are the people who are willing to pay a premium and help enable green energy capacity,” he said at a landmark energy summit in London on Thursday.

Breakthrough Energy Group — founded by Gates and whose investors also include Jeff Bezos, Masayoshi Son and Jack Ma — has invested in more than 100 companies developing sustainable energy and other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The London event was attended by, among others: Prince William, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and John Podesta, the top US climate diplomat.

Big Tech groups including Microsoft, Amazon and Google have unveiled plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to build the computing infrastructure required to run artificial intelligence systems in countries around the world.

However, limitations in the availability of electricity already pose a challenge for companies wanting to develop new technology.

An April report from the U.S. Department of Energy said that “artificial intelligence is expected to be the largest driver of U.S. data center workload growth in the near future.”

Although companies such as Amazon and Microsoft have signed long-term power purchase agreements with wind and solar generators, these agreements “typically do not meet hour-to-hour electricity demand with local resources,” the U.S. agency said. This meant that “there was no guarantee that the contracts would offset all electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions.”

In May, the Electric Power Research Institute said data centers could use up to 9 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. by 2030, more than double what they currently use.

Despite arguing that tech companies are driving the growth of green energy, he said one of his biggest concerns is “getting enough electricity” needed to meet growing demand while also cleaning up huge sectors like cement and steel.

“The amount of green energy needed for the transition will not arrive as quickly as we need,” he said.

For this reason, the global target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is unlikely to be met, arguing that “another 10 or 15 years may be a more realistic solution.”“.