U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has called for U.S. power plants to increase their production by 10% to 15%.
What's happening?
Burgum called for this ramping up of energy to meet the growing needs of artificial intelligence, per Reuters.
"Winning the AI arms race doesn't just take software developers. It takes more electricity," Burgum told a meeting of U.S. governors in Washington.
He also said that the U.S. should build new transmission lines and natural gas pipelines and also permit new power plants to fulfill this demand.
Why is AI's energy consumption concerning?
In its current state, AI uses an immense amount of energy, which can cost a lot of money and harm our environment. And as AI expert Chris Mattmann told The Cool Down in a recent interview, the demand is only increasing.
According to Statista, two of the most recently trained and most popular models, ChatGPT-4 and Gemini 1, cost between $41 million-$78 million and $30 million-$191 million, respectively. These numbers do not factor in staff salaries.
The International Energy Agency has also reported that data centers in the U.S. are projected to consume 6% of the country's total energy usage by 2026.
If the U.S. does not slow down its use of AI, use renewable energy to power AI, or commit to a combination of the two, wallets and the environment will suffer.
What's being done about AI's energy consumption?
In addition to natural gas, Burgum also proposed at his confirmation hearing in January that "clean coal" should be used to power AI, per Politico.
The Sierra Club's legislative director, Melinda Pierce, spoke out against this, saying, "There's no such thing as 'clean coal.' Coal pollutes our air, increases the risk of illnesses to vulnerable groups, and causes climate catastrophes."
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Definitely 💯 Pierce continued, "We urge Doug Burgum to move on from his 'clean coal' fairytales and get serious about the problems that our communities are facing by helping our nation responsibly transition to clean energy."
Companies such as Oklo are also working to create small modular nuclear reactors to support the energy demands of data centers — a solution that brings its own risks and concerns but is at least much cleaner for the atmosphere than coal and gas.
Burgum has not yet endorsed expanding renewable energy initiatives such as solar, wind, geothermal, or hydroelectric — methods of energy generation that notably require no mining or shipping of fuel to be burned into the air and in many cases require less ongoing maintenance once built. When he was governor of North Dakota, though, he did promote the notion of an "all-of-the-above energy policy" that would push all forms of energy generation as a logical way to become more energy independent.
When there are opportunities to advocate for clean energy and against irresponsible energy use, advocate accordingly when you can. You can also consider how you use AI personally and professionally.
While looking at your personal habits may not solve everything, it can matter when done at scale across millions of others, and it may give you the knowledge to figure out how you can best contribute to legislative advocacy if you choose to do so.
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