WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The demand for electricity by artificial intelligence companies has been growing exponentially, leading to a new energy crisis in the U.S.
According to filings made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by Grid Strategies, the nation would require about 34 new nuclear plants, or 38 gigawatts, over the next five years to provide electricity to data centers and manufacturing units as well as vehicles.
AI companies require a large amount of power to train language models and manufacture chips and other hardware. Additionally, the integration of AI into online searches has pushed the power requirement to at least 10 times more than the same required for a standard search, CNN reports.
OpenAI Chief Sam Altman suggested that the only solution to the energy crisis is nuclear fusion, the process where two or more atoms smash together to form a denser one, releasing a huge amount of energy.
Altman had initially discussed about clean energy technology during an interview in January, where he stressed the need for nuclear fusion along with other renewable sources of energy as they don't leave any nuclear waste or pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
According to a recent analysis by the International Energy Agency, the electricity demand by data centers, cryptocurrencies and AI was around 2 percent of total global electricity demand in 2022, and it is predicted to increase further in the future.
In the wake of such prediction, many companies are gearing up to utilize artificial intelligence to tackle the climate crisis caused by increased electricity production.
Tech giant Microsoft's (MSFT) spokesperson revealed that the company is 'investing in research to measure the energy use and carbon impact of AI while working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application.'
Similarly, oil and gas company Shell (SHEL) is developing an AI tool for monitoring methane emissions, optimizing the efficiency of energy systems to reduce the amount of power needed to be generated.
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