Chip industry sees danger of AI in explosion of electricity use

A flood of new devices are getting Internet connections, generating more data and increasing the need for more computing power with artificial intelligence to make sense of that new information. — GERD ALTMANN/Pixabay

The increasing use of artificial intelligence is going to extract a heavy price in power unless the chip industry steps up and heads that off, according to one of the industry’s biggest companies.

Datacentres are on course to consume 15% of the world’s electricity by 2025, according to Applied Materials Inc, the world’s largest maker of chip equipment. Those giant warehouses of computers currently suck in about 2%, the company said.