The hidden energy cost of artificial intelligence

Source Domain: dailypioneer.com

Artificial intelligence has slipped quietly into everyday life. We don’t just use AI anymore, we encounter it constantly. It appears when we search online, shop, navigate traffic, or let software autocomplete our thoughts. Even when we are not consciously engaging with AI, it is already working in the background.

There is no doubt that AI holds enormous promise. It can improve productivity, help solve complex problems, and entertain us. I am not an AI skeptic. But the speed at which AI is being adopted is a near-term consequence that deserves far more attention: electricity demand.

Data centers, the physical backbone of AI, consume vast amounts of power. According to research by the Berkeley National Laboratory, US data centers used roughly 176 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023. That is comparable to the annual electricity use of around 16 million average American households, roughly the combined total of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

What is more concerning is the trajectory. India sits at an interesting and often overlooked intersection in this conversation. It operates within many of the same technological, demographic, and governance pressures that advanced economies now face.

India has leapfrogged in digital public infrastructure, from Aadhaar and UPI to large scale digital delivery service, creating AI ready datasets and platforms at a scale unmatched by some developed nations. At the same time, its vast workforce and developmental priorities mean that AI adoption is viewed as less productivity enhancer alone and more as a tool of inclusion, efficiency.

AI expansion is naturally tempered by energy availability, but also incentivises efficiency, renewables, and smarter grid management from the outset. In effect, India is being forced to confront a question which developed economies postponed that how to align digital ambition with energy discipline rather than excess. Driven largely by AI, data center electricity use could triple…

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