More and more companies are using artificial intelligence to accelerate change and to improve their productivity. What not everybody realizes yet, is that the use of artificial intelligence comes at a cost. Behind every AI-based technology lies a complex infrastructure that consumes lots of electricity, water and hardware.
Using AI without a clear idea of these kind of costs, does not align with environmental goals like striving to be sustainable, protecting nature and reducing the emissions of greenhouse gas. To achieve both economic growth and be more sustainable, we founded GreenPT.
We’ll tell you all about the hidden environmental cost of AI and how we do things differently.
Table of contents
The hidden environmental cost of AI
Whether you are using an AI-based virtual assistent, a generative model or an automation pipeline, it all costs electricity, water and raw materials. Especially large machine learning models require more energy every year due to their rising complexity.
The expansion of AI places additional strain on global energy systems and contributes directly to carbon emissions. Both the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Energy Agency warn that energy consumption from technologies as AI poses a significant challenge for climate change.
The energy consumption of data centres
All digital services, cloud computing and AI-systems ultimately are driven by data centres. These are therefore major consumers of electricity. It is estimated that data centres amount to 3 percent of the world’s total consumption of electricity. This number is expected to rise.
A lot of the electricity is still generated by fossil fuels. This increases the emissions of carbon dioxide and accelerates climate change. The energy needed to power and cool AI-data centres can also result in loss of biodiversity and have an impact on important ecosystems.
Especially older data centres have outdated cooling techniques to cool the servers. They also have hardware that is less efficient in the usage of energy. This increases the environmental footprint of conventional data centres even more.
The water usage of data centres
Most people don’t know that data centres have to be cooled around the clock. Otherwise, the servers heat up too much. Traditional facilities rely heavily on cooling mechanisms based on water. Some data centres consume millions of liters of water every day.
In times where clean water can be scarce around the planet, this is a harsh statistic. It puts more pressure on local communities and natural ecosystems, especially in regions already affected by climate change.
The efficiency of water usage varies quite a bit among data centres. Modern facilities usually cool their servers more efficiently, which requires less water. That’s why, ideally, your AI-systems are run in a sustainable data center.
The acceleration in electronic waste
Next to energy and water, there is also the issue of electronic waste, also known as e-waste. As the development of AI accelerates, the life expectancy of hardware has decreased. This means that data centres replace their servers quicker than they used to.
According to global estimates, electronic waste is now over 50 million tonnes per year. This number will continue to increase. Without proper waste management, dangerous materials such as lead, mercury and lithium can leach into soil and water systems.
These are major environmental concerns and another reason to use AI mindfully. It means that companies with sustainability in mind should only use AI when they need to and that it’s always better to run your systems in data centres powered by sustainable energy.
Worries about AI’s carbon footprint and climate change
Given the rise in energy consumption, water consumption and e-waste, the carbon footprint of AI is higher than ever. Environmental protection organizations and policymakers call for sustainable strategies, renewable energy sources and more efficiency with energy.
If AI-technologies keep relying on environmentally destructive ways of generating electricity, their contribution to climate change will outpace other digital sectors. That’s why using AI sensibly is both an ethical responsibility and a practical necessity to meet climate commitments.
How GreenPT combines economic growth with sustainability
At GreenPT, we are well aware of the impact of AI. We are also aware of the economic growth that AI brings about. That’s why we decided to bring efficiency, sustainability and privacy together in our sustainable GPT. Let’s introduce you to the core of our AI-model.
We prioritize sustainability in AI
Renewable energy fully powers our model. It’s run by efficient data centres in the EU and it’s ISO-certified. We eliminate the use of fossil fuels and that drastically lowers greenhouse gas emissions when choosing our model backed by sustainable energy systems.
We also decided to use smaller, more efficient AI-models. Our models are enhanced by compression and quantization. This means that we reduce computing power by 20 to 30 percent, without any noticeable quality loss.
We provide you with privacy
Next to sustainability, we also care about privacy. Our models and data centres strictly adhere to European laws, such as the GDPR. Data is not stored in third-party environments. We exclusively use self-hosted models on secure European servers.
Also, no training data is ever harvested from user conversations. Your conversations with GreenPT are fully protected by advanced encryption. With our transparant data practices, we provide you with end-to-end security while maintaining minimal data collection.
We always strive for more efficiency
Last but not least, we are always aiming to make our systems more efficient. By making technical optimizations, we make our AI-algorithms leaner and therefore they use less energy. Our model is advanced in reasoning, allows multilingual translation, speech-to-text and much more.
We also provide you with real-time insights in energy-usage. This helps you and your organization to make more data-driven, sustainable choices that reduce the environmental footprint and to make choices that are aligned with your companies policies when it comes to energy efficiency and a sustainable future.
Performance metrics of GreenPT
Of course we have data to back our promises. GreenPT outperforms industry average across all indicators for environmental sustainability and environmental impact. This means using our AI does way less environmental harm and goes together well with supporting environmental projects.
When it comes to Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), our data centres deliver a score of 1.37. This is far below the industry average of 1.57, which means that we have a significantly higher efficiency when it comes to energy use.
Another important metric is Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE). Our data centres score 0.067. This is way lower compared to the industry average of 1.8. This shows that we use a lot less water, which is better for the environment.
And like we said before, our infrastructure is a 100 percent powered by renewable energy. The renewable share in the industry overall is 60 percent. These numbers make GreenPT a leader when it coms to sustainable AI-operations.
Why sustainable AI-development matters more than ever
In order to reduce environmental risks and to support environmental goals, we believe that sustainable AI is no longer optional. It is a necessity for governments and corporations to show they really care about their energy infrastructure and the environmental impact of AI.
As artificial intelligence continues to span across our digital economies, now is the time to make considerable changes and to shape a sustainable future with AI. Choosing GreenPT is a practical, ethical and economical choice to step forward and to innovate responsibly. Start your free trial and explore the green and privacy-first AI platform.
