Viewpoints Explained: Artificial Intelligence’s Energy Problem: Why More Consumers Are Footing The Bill

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Have you noticed the cost of your electricity creeping up this year? You might not realize it but this increase could be from artificial intelligence. Behind every chat bot, image generator, and smart search tool is a huge network of data centers. All of this continuous computing requires enormous amounts of electricity to process data and keep these machines from overheating.

While electricity costs are up across the board, towns near these big data centers are getting hit extra hard. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that wholesale electricity prices in some of these areas have soared by as much as 270 percent over the last five years. Some policymakers are now exploring ways to make data center owners pay more for electricity costs so the burden doesn’t fall on residential consumers. Meanwhile, tech companies are investing in renewable microgrids, liquid cooling, and energy-efficient computer chips to lower electricity use.

Still, efficiency alone can’t offset the expansion of new data centers coming online every month. In 2023, data centers used about four percent of all U.S. Electricity, according to the U.S. Department of energy. By 2028, it’s predicted that this number will triple. The promise of AI may be limitless, but the U.S power grid isn’t. What comes next is figuring out how to power this technology without overloading the system we all rely on.

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