LSE IQ: is AI destroying the planet?

Hi everyone, it's Gemma Ware here from The Conversation. The Conversation Weekly is on a break for the next few weeks in August,

but we're really pleased to be able to bring you a recent episode of the podcast LSEIQ

that asks the question, is AI destroying the planet?

LSEIQ is an award-winning monthly social science podcast produced by a team from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Each episode, they ask leading social scientists and other experts

to answer one intelligent question and speak to people affected by the issues explored, like artificial intelligence.

AI is transforming the world around us, offering increased productivity and promising to tackle difficult problems like global warming.

But behind the scenes, its environmental costs are mounting.

From massive energy use to the vast quantities of water required to cool data centers, AI's footprint is growing fast.

So in an age of water scarcity and climate crisis, can we justify this technological boom?

In this episode of LSEIQ, which first aired in early May, producer Anna Bevan explores, is AI destroying the planet?

so i'm opening up chat gpt on my laptop and

it's asking me what can i help with i'm going

to type how much water does

chat gpt use okay

it says it's thinking it's searching the web here's what it says for each chat gpt interaction estimates suggest that it could use around 500 milliliters of water.

Oh wow, so I basically just poured away the equivalent of a small bottle of water to find out the answer to that one question.

And if I was to use ChatGPT just once a week for a whole year, that would be like pouring away 27 liters of water.

That's the same as filling your kitchen sink right to the top and then pulling the plug.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world around us, offering increased productivity and promising to help tackle difficult problems like global warming.

But when we're being warned that climate change is exacerbating water scarcity

and told that we all need to reduce our carbon footprint, the rapid growth of AI poses a big challenge to the environment.

It's an AI sustainability paradox. Welcome to LSEIQ,

the podcast where we ask social scientists and other experts to answer one intelligent question.

I'm Anna Bevan from the IQ team. We work with academics to bring you their latest research and ideas,

and talk to people affected by the issues we explore. In this episode I'm asking, is AI destroying the planet?

I find out just how much water data centres use, discuss what an Irish goddess has to do with energy conservation,

and learn how AI can help catch poachers in the Serengeti.

But first I travel to Slough, about 20 miles outside of central London

to find out exactly how data centres work. The next station is Slough.

So here I am in Slough. It's not the most glamorous of locations.

Once famed for providing the backdrop to Ricky Gervais' sitcom The Office, it's now home to Europe's largest data centre hub.

These are the hubs that power huge chunks of the internet. So there's a good chance that pretty much everything on your phone or your computer is stored here on Slough Trading Estate.

We have the big kind of cloud providers with us, so your Googles and your Microsoft and your Amazons. That's Raj Ubi.

He works at Equinix, one of the biggest data centre companies in the world.

It has 268 data centres across the globe and 97% of all internet traffic flows through one of its data centres.

So it's huge. Raj is giving me a tour of one of the buildings on Equinix's Slough campus, called LD6.

And what type of connections are happening right now? Everything and anything you can think of.

So, you know, even simple stuff like your internet connection that could possibly run through here, most likely does. Mine does.

I only live around the corner, so mine definitely does. All the way up to how Teslas connect to their cars,

how your fridge connects to, if you've got one of those fancy ones, how your TV works, your banks, anything you think of, Ministry of Defence, you know, it's all running through data centres like ours.

And we're the biggest, so we have the most people going through our data centres. And how come you're based in Slough?

So LD4 is our longest standing data centre here. And one of the main reasons is there is an undersea cable going to,

I believe it's New York in America. So it runs along the M4 and this data centre is right placed right there.

So basically all of the trading platforms and banks huddled into that area.