The environmental footprint of data centres already rivals some of the world's largest countries, according to a United Nations University report released on 3 June.
Their water use, energy use and pollution is predicted to double in just four years as use of artificial intelligence grows.
Much of the growth of data centres is being driven by AI. About 20 per cent of data centres’ energy is currently due to AI, but that should grow to 40 per cent by 2030, the report said.
AI users can reduce the climate impact of their queries by less polite and more concise in their queries, one of the report's authors advises.
The majority of people – 70 per cent – are polite to AI when interacting with it, according to a survey carried out by British publisher Future in 2024. Of the respondents, 55 per cent said they do this because "it's just the nice thing to do", while 12 per cent said it was because "when the robot uprising happens, I don't want to come first".
