Why AI Consumes So Much Energy - and What Might Be Done About It

42 snips

Sep 24, 2024

Nvidia’s director of accelerated computing

Dion Harris, director of accelerated computing at Nvidia, and Benjamin Lee, a UPenn expert in AI and datacenters, dive into the energy consumption of AI. They discuss the staggering electricity demands posed by AI's rapid growth and its implications for the U.S. power grid. The conversation highlights innovative solutions for optimizing energy use in AI-driven data centers and the role of renewable energy. They also explore strategies for minimizing the environmental impact of AI development and the importance of sustainable practices in hardware production.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

AI’s Energy Impact

AI’s growth is straining the US electricity grid, consuming 1-2% globally.
Within data centers, AI workloads occupy about 12%, demanding more electricity and complicating decarbonization efforts.

INSIGHT

GPUs and Efficiency

AI processes rely on GPUs, which increase compute density and efficiency.
This is analogous to public transport being more efficient than individual cars.

INSIGHT

AI Energy Challenges

AI energy challenges include growth outpacing supply and climate impacts.
Tech companies face difficulty with decarbonization targets due to AI's energy consumption.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Nvidia’s director of accelerated computing, and a Penn expert in AI and datacenters, explain why AI uses so much energy, and how its energy appetite might be curbed.
---
Artificial Intelligence is taking off. In just under two years since the introduction of Chat GPT, the first popular AI chatbot, the global number of AI bot users has grown to one and a half billion. Yet, for the U.S. electricity grid, AI’s dramatic growth could not have come at a more challenging time. AI is energy-intensive, and its expansion is putting additional strain on an already burdened grid that’s struggling to keep pace with rising electricity demand in many regions. In addition, AI’s energy demands complicate efforts to decarbonize the grid as more electricity – generated with a mixture of carbon-free and fossil fuels – is required to support its growth.

The podcast explores the challenges AI presents to the power grid with Dion Harris, Director of Accelerated Computing at Nvidia, and Benjamin Lee, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. The two explain how and why AI leads to increased electricity use and explore strategies to limit AI’s energy impact.

Dion Harris is director of accelerated computing at Nvidia.

Benjamin Lee is a professor of electrical and systems engineering, and of computer and information Science, at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a visiting researcher at Google’s Global Infrastructure Group.

Related Content
Should ‘Energy Hogs’ Shoulder More of the Utility Cost Burden? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/should-energy-hogs-shoulder-more-of-the-utility-cost-burden/
Plugging Carbon Leaks with the European Union’s New Policy https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/plugging-carbon-leaks-with-the-european-unions-new-policy/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.