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    AI data centre energy consumption across the countries of the world
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    AI data centre energy consumption across the countries of the world

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    11 Comments

    1. AdDry7344 on

      Maybe a dumb question, but are regular data centers and AI data centers usually part of the same facilities, or are they separate specialized ones?

    2. Omegaville on

      Things were already heading in this direction over the past century. Think of how many items we keep plugged in and switched on, many of which were invented and marketed since 1900:

      * Lighting (both inside, and outside e.g. building signage, advertising)
      * Refrigerators
      * Radios and Televisions
      * Heating and Air Conditioning
      * Security systems
      * Computer servers
      * Network routers

      Thinking not just the home, but for commercial and industry. E.g. a petrol station with its signage and forecourt lit up, a shopping centre powering escalators, a factory’s ventilation, etc.

      Every bit adds up. I don’t see data centres as being much different from heavy industry. People complain about water usage… but don’t seem to care about pollution of the air and water by chemicals.

      The map is showing most countries use less energy than data centres. That’s fine, but it should be noted that the countries in blue have significantly higher populations and large industrial and commercial operations. It’s where most of the world’s stuff is produced and exported to the remainder.

      It’s a great map but I don’t think it should be use for an “AI is bad, Data Centres are bad” arguments. The world was already moving toward data centres before the AI revolution of the 2020s. We’ve seen growth in Internet usage since the 1990s, increased by streaming services in the 2010s… eventually we’d have needed data centres to cope with that load.

    4. PuzzleMeDo on

      It sounds like all the data centers in the world combined consume less energy than Canada. So the question is, should we be fighting data centers? Or should we just destroy Canada?

    5. meister2983 on

      My takeaway here is that Canada consumes more electricity than Mexico with less than a third of the population. 

    6. Revolutionary_Buddha on

      What a weird way to frame energy consumption. Is it all combined?

      Or is OP trying to sensationalise the topic.

    7. geebanga on

      448 divided by 31 779 TWh ~1.4% of global electricity usage.

      Edit: bonus funsies factoid- if brains are rated at 100W, then 0.1kW x 86400 x365 x8.3 billion people~2.6 x 10^16 kW~2.6 x 10^7 TWh.

      The world’s human brains may use 820 times the energy of the world’s data centres.

      In ten doublings, data centre energy use would exceed human brain energy use.

      Edited: for syntax

      😄

    10. HarrMada on

      Data centers or AI data centers specifically? Title and subtitle says differently. Some people might think we don’t need data centers, period. We absolutely need data centers.