Is artificial intelligence becoming a climate killer?

AI can help reduce emissions, but in itself it consumes huge amounts of energy. In order for technology to be used successfully to combat climate change, a lot must change.

IEven political celebrities came to the inconspicuous business district of Hanau, Hesse state, on a Friday afternoon in October. US company Google is opening its first cloud data center in Germany here. Previously, Google was using third-party data centers for its cloud offering in Germany. The opening was attended by Federal Digital Minister Volker Wessing (FDP). He says data centers are the door to the future. Technologies like artificial intelligence are unthinkable without data centers.

In fact, major technology companies are currently investing billions in building new data centers. Advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) are one of the biggest drivers. Since the launch of ChatGPT about a year ago, companies from a wide range of industries have been experimenting with the technology. This is only possible on the cloud. And only with a large amount of computing power – and therefore also with high power consumption.