What's the environmental impact of AI?
Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. Remember, you can read the transcript at any time.
Transcript
AI needs water. A lot of water – equivalent to all the water used by some smaller countries. That's because as the tech industry has grown, so too have data centres – these huge buildings filled with hundreds of thousands of computers that require vast amounts of electricity, air and sometimes water to stay cool. Because of AI, Google, Microsoft and Meta have all reported higher energy and water consumption year over year.
Currently, there are no federal regulations for AI, so some scientists are worried about how that could impact our planet in the future. Here's Benjamin Lee from the University of Pennsylvania.
I think before generative AI came along in late 2022, there was hope among these data centre operators that they could go to net zero. I don't see how you can, under current infrastructure investment plans, you could possibly achieve those net zero goals.
With major infrastructure projects like Stargate, the Trump administration plans to build another 20 new data centres over the next four years. So until stronger regulations are in place, it's up to tech companies to figure out how to keep their energy and water consumption low, while keeping up with demand for AI innovation.
©NPR
Hi fellas,
Why no worksheets recently?
Thanks
Hi mindthegreg,
It's purely a question of time and resources. We're a small team here and producing worksheets is quite a time-consuming process. At the moment we're focused on adding new content; we may go back in the future and add worksheets to the pages if time allows.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I think AI will change our lives like internet, but I'm not sure if this change will be good or bad, because AI has a lot of pros and cons specially on our minds and our skills, you know sometimes you ask AI to make some work done for you when you feel laziness, but I hope we consider these bad impacts and be aware while using it.
Yes, I think AI will change our lives, AI help people do same things and may become an assistant for us. Some time I use AI to check mistake of English Email also summary some documents.
all things have two side, Good or bad depend on how we use AI for life. But I think AI is mostly good for us.
hello