The excessive consumption of resources is a situation that is getting worse and worse -you have already seen the letter that you will receive at home to inform you of how much you are spending. However, water is especially precious, and the droughts we are experiencing are worrying. In this context, one expert has issued a serious warning: the next crisis will leave us without technology, and it will be even worse.
Water scarcity, a problem we have now made even worse
Fresh water is becoming increasingly scarce worldwide. It is estimated that 4 billion people already suffer water shortages at least one month a year. However, a new challenge looms on the horizon: the growing demand for electricity to power artificial intelligence.
AI has experienced exponential growth over the past decade, and its computing capacity is expected to double every two years. But all this power requires an enormous amount of energy. If we don’t solve this energy challenge, our power supply will collapse.
Remember the drought in the United States, especially in Texas and California? In the middle of 2024, we can almost compare it to what we are experiencing in Andalusia, Catalonia or on the island of Tenerife. However, the extent to which AI is having an impact has yet to be assessed.
Water scarcity is increasing due to population growth, but also because of the expansion of technology – with the growing and obvious need to cool microchips or conductors. However, there is an even more valuable resource that we will lack just when we need it most.
Artificial intelligence, a “resource guzzler,” according to Elon Musk
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have experienced explosive growth in recent years. It is estimated that the amount of technological capacity used to train AI models has doubled every 3.4 months since 2012. Doesn’t that seem barbaric?
Big tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon invest billions in AI research. It is estimated that more than $60 billion was invested in AI startups in 2021. With all this momentum, AI can now perform previously unthinkable tasks, such as voice recognition.
However, perhaps we’re overlooking something: how much electricity do we need to put all these advances to work? The more powerful they are, the greater the demand they place, and we won’t always be able to amortize it or guarantee it – remember what has happened across Europe with the war in Ukraine.
Elon Musk has it clear: we are running out of electricity, and we already know the year
Elon Musk, the famous tech entrepreneur, has made several warnings about the risks posed by artificial intelligence to the future of humanity. Specifically, he has warned that the rapid growth and development of AI could have serious consequences by 2025.
According to Musk, the computing capacity that will be needed to run the most advanced AI systems will grow exponentially in the coming years. This will generate such a huge demand for electricity that it could outstrip the world’s electricity generation capacity.
In fact, he went so far as to warn that by 2025 the demand for electricity from AI will be so high that it could “devour electricity and transformers.” The billionaire has expressed concern that he does not believe there is enough electrical infrastructure in the world to sustain the operation of advanced AI.
What is certain, at this point, is that not only will we run out of water, we will run out of electricity. Will we continue to rely on large-scale technology? In fact, even the European Union is looking for new alternatives to overcome this crisis. One of them has made an impact on us: it is the most renewable fuel, but it has environmentalists up in arms.
