AI’s energy use will fall over time, says DeepMind sustainability lead

The intense climate impact from the rise of generative AI models will decline as systems become more energy efficient and tech firms move from building to updating, according to Google DeepMind’s sustainability lead.

Speaking to UKTN, Drew Purves acknowledged that the massive demand for powerful new AI models, including Google’s Gemini, has led to skyrocketing energy and compute costs.

According to one study, generating an image using an AI model uses as much energy as fully charging your smartphone.

When people submit such requests in the millions, this quickly adds up. The climate impact of this increased energy usage, as well as the resources required to sustain the massive data centres that AI models rely on, has consequently caused major concern among environmentalists….