Here’s how MIT Technology Review waded through a mess of data and hidden variables to calculate the individual and collective energy demand from AI.
When we set out to write a story on the best available estimates for AI’s energy and emissions burden, we knew there would be caveats and uncertainties to these numbers. But, we quickly discovered, the caveats are the story too.
This story is a part of MIT Technology Review’s series “Power Hungry: AI and our energy future,” on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial-intelligence revolution.
Measuring the energy used by an AI model is not like evaluating a car’s fuel economy or an appliance’s energy rating. There’s no agreed-upon method or public database of values. There are no regulators who enforce standards, and consumers don’t get the chance to evaluate one model against another.
Despite the fact that billions of dollars are being poured into reshaping energy infrastructure around the needs of AI, no one has settled on a way to quantify AI’s energy usage. Worse, companies are generally unwilling to disclose their own piece of the puzzle. There are also limitations to estimating the emissions associated with that energy demand, because the grid hosts a complicated, ever-changing mix of energy sources.
