Digiconomist

Big tech’s selective disclosure masks AI’s real climate impact Google claims to have disclosed new information proving its own efficiency. But it has hidden the bigger picture. Guess what: I’ve got the bigger picture for you right here in this big old po…

HEY friends: recently seen heaps of "disclosures" from AI companies of the energy cost per question you type into chatbots (most recently from Google)?

Presenting per-query 'efficiency' is part of big tech's efforts to hide its extremely real and happening-right-now climate impacts!

NEW POST -->>>

Google says a typical AI text prompt only uses 5 drops of water — experts say that’s misleading “This really spreads the wrong message to the world.”

It also ignores that Google’s total power demand has gone up by a massive 50% over the past two years (driven by AI) despite all the reported efficiency gains (a classic Jevons’ paradox).

Google says a typical AI text prompt only uses 5 drops of water — experts say that’s misleading “This really spreads the wrong message to the world.”

Google released some new data on the environmental impact Gemini AI prompts, but omitted so many details you can hardly consider it useful. Instead, it does paint an overly rosy picture of the impact concerned.

Google says a typical AI text prompt only uses 5 drops of water — experts say that’s misleading “This really spreads the wrong message to the world.”

It also ignores that Google’s total power demand has gone up by a massive 50% over the past two years (driven by AI) despite all the reported efficiency gains (a classic Jevons’ paradox).

Google says a typical AI text prompt only uses 5 drops of water — experts say that’s misleading “This really spreads the wrong message to the world.”

Google released some new data on the environmental impact Gemini AI prompts, but omitted so many details you can hardly consider it useful. Instead, it does paint an overly rosy picture of the impact concerned.

Bitcoin mining has been nothing more than a huge energy waste in past years. Now AI is about to surpass Bitcoin’s power demand. Emerging tech is rapidly driving up the power demand of worldwide digital infrastructure with the inevitable consequence being strained power grids and more fossil fuel use

Our 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report We reflect on our progress towards our ambitious 2030 goals: to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste, while protecting ecosystems. As we enter the second half of the decade, Microsoft re...

Microsoft’s sustainability report that covers 2024 is now available - and it contains some interesting highlights so let’s dive in!

blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...

AI could consume more power than Bitcoin by the end of 2025 “It shouldn’t be this ridiculously hard” to track AI’s energy consumption.

The Verge covering my latest research on the power demand of AI and how this is likely to soon surpass another energy hog in the digital space: Bitcoin mining.

www.theverge.com/climate-chan...

At the same time, there’s not even a breakdown of scope 3 emissions per region - so it’s not remotely possible to see what is going on here.

“We are working with governments, suppliers, peers, industry associations, and others [] to improve carbon-free electricity access in markets where we have a significant supply chain footprint, most notably in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, where the majority of Microsoft's semiconductors are sourced.”

The key regions for AI chip manufacturing (Taiwan, Korea and Japan) are highlighted as a challenge (as these regions heavily rely on fossil fuels):

Another thing that is not clear from the report is how AI semiconductor manufacturing is impacting the report. Microsoft only writes:

“At Microsoft, 97% of our emissions are in the Scope 3 category, with the majority of these emissions within our supply chain.”

“As a sector, building materials such as steel and cement are currently some of the highest contributors globally to the carbon cost of new construction, together producing an estimated 13.5% of global carbon emissions.”

It’s also worth noting that building out all this new (AI) data center infratructure also has a significant impact:

“However, the power system presents a bottleneck, including limits to grid availability to physically connect new carbon-free electricity generation sources, limits to grid capacity to transport carbon-free power (particularly from intermittent renewable energy sources)”

Moreover, the report also contains are rare acknowledgement that it’s challenging to meet new power demand with carbon-free energy sources in what is titled “the AI challenge:”

Especially considering the claim that power is being saved elsewhere, AI is likely having a significant impact on these numbers.

Again, there is no granular data on what part relates to AI, but Microsoft does acknowledge AI is driving up power demand:

“Despite increased demands from Al workloads over the past year, Microsoft has doubled our rate of power savings, scaling this approach across our datacenters.”

Related scope 2 emissions are also up up from 8.1 mtCO2 to 10 mtCO2 (a 23% increase) following the location-based approach.

Microsoft’s electricity consumption is rising rapidly, up from 23.6 TWh to 29.8 TWh (a 26% increase). This means that Microsoft now has an electricity consumption equivalent to a country such as Ireland (31.5 TWh).

However, let’s start with what the report does not provide. Despite well over 100 references to “AI” the report does not provide much useful insights in how AI specifically impacts Microsoft’s sustainability report.

Our 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report We reflect on our progress towards our ambitious 2030 goals: to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste, while protecting ecosystems. As we enter the second half of the decade, Microsoft re...

Microsoft’s sustainability report that covers 2024 is now available - and it contains some interesting highlights so let’s dive in!

blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...

AI could consume more power than Bitcoin by the end of 2025 “It shouldn’t be this ridiculously hard” to track AI’s energy consumption.

The Verge covering my latest research on the power demand of AI and how this is likely to soon surpass another energy hog in the digital space: Bitcoin mining.

www.theverge.com/climate-chan...

Why ChatGPT is unlikely to solve climate change Critics say boosters conflating different types of AI.

AI power demand is rising rapidly while boosting carbon emissions, but of course we’re being told not to worry about it because “some other AI will magically solve all climate challenges soon™️.”

Emerging tech is in urgent need of a healthy dose of accountability.

www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

“Data centre blitz threatens Labour’s net zero hopes”

Tech companies are desperately looking for power as AI is generating a huge new demand. This extra power demand will boost reliance on fossil fuels and threatens to undermine climate goals.

Read the full Telegraph article: archive.is/pAQpY

“Data centre blitz threatens Labour’s net zero hopes”

Tech companies are desperately looking for power as AI is generating a huge new demand. This extra power demand will boost reliance on fossil fuels and threatens to undermine climate goals.

Read the full Telegraph article: archive.is/pAQpY

Bitcoin mining has been nothing more than a huge energy waste in past years. Now AI is about to surpass Bitcoin’s power demand. Emerging tech is rapidly driving up the power demand of worldwide digital infrastructure with the inevitable consequence being strained power grids and more fossil fuel use

AI could account for nearly half of datacentre power usage ‘by end of year’ Analysis comes as energy agency predicts systems will need as much energy by end of decade as Japan uses today

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming the largest energy hog within worldwide digital infrastructure.

By the end of 2025, AI systems could be responsible for half of total data center power demand - up from about 20% per the end of last year.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

AI could account for nearly half of datacentre power usage ‘by end of year’ Analysis comes as energy agency predicts systems will need as much energy by end of decade as Japan uses today

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming the largest energy hog within worldwide digital infrastructure.

By the end of 2025, AI systems could be responsible for half of total data center power demand - up from about 20% per the end of last year.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As a result, if you’re in London and want to send money to New York, environmentally you’d theoretically be better off taking the plane to manually deliver a bag of cash than sending a Bitcoin transaction. 1 BTC txn on avg consumes as much power as a US household over 1.5 months.