AI Will Suck Up 500% More Power in UK in 10 Years, Grid CEO Says (bloomberg.com)
- Reference: 0173387761
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/03/26/1228256/ai-will-suck-up-500-more-power-in-uk-in-10-years-grid-ceo-says
- Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-26/ai-will-suck-up-500-more-power-in-uk-in-10-years-grid-ceo-says
> That will ramp up pressure on the country's electricity network, which must move vast quantities of renewable energy from as far away as Scottish wind farms to data centers around London. And it's a grid already under strain from the accelerating electrification of home heating, transportation and industries.
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> "Future growth in foundational technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing will mean larger-scale, energy-intensive computing infrastructure," National Grid Chief Executive Officer John Pettigrew said Tuesday at a conference in Oxford. It's an outlook replicated in many other countries, which are grappling with how to fund the massive spending required to expand capacity. Global electricity demand from data centers, AI and cryptocurrencies may more than double over the next three years, according to International Energy Agency forecasts.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-26/ai-will-suck-up-500-more-power-in-uk-in-10-years-grid-ceo-says
Re: (Score:2)
As we have been told for years, the electric grids for all nations seem to be in a mess. As I understand it, except in a few quarters, for the most part the UK is a net electricity importer. As all nations are trying to increase electric usage I'd guess their excess to export will drop? I have no idea. I guess those Scottish windfarms are the ones that are on the sites of the 3.4 million+ trees removed? Gee, there's some living creature that sequesters carbon, what could it be?
Re: (Score:2)
Bitcoin, not BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol. Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency that uses obscene amounts of energy for nothing.
Re: (Score:1)
Easy, we tax unrealised gains to create a new army of the dejected and homeless. Next we can “house” them In pods where we can control and limit their energy needs while generating power from their body heat. If you think a 15 minute city is efficient, wait til you try our 15 second pods! That should free up enough power for the AIs to do your job and still provide for the whims of the elite.
Deal with today's problems first... (Score:3)
If they are worried about power consumption, they should be dealing with what is already certain: EVs will need more power than the UK can currently provide, plus building out their power lines, plus building out their charging stations.
Will data centers also need more power? Maybe. But they are a lesser problem, because they can be build where the infrastructure can support them. So two of the above three problems with EVs won't exist. Also, with custom-designed AI chips and ever better models, it is entirely possible that the power requirements will not be all that dramatic.
Re: (Score:1)
Well, I agree. One of today's problem is: All the local data centers have raised prices 30% or more because every moron in town wants to start an "AI business". People who just need to renew their leases are being pushed out due to cost. Hopefully, the demand will create some new opportunities (it certainly has for data center managers) but I worry about the boom-bust style cycle this could create at the data center / hosting level.
If current trends persist (Score:2)
I love when people make technological prognostications like this, assuming that nothing will change and that everybody will continue to use the same algorithms they always have been that are just as energy and hardware hungry as they are now. 10 years is a long time to come up with something new. I'll bet we see something new before that
Better than Bitcoin (Score:2)
Seriously, this is like complaining light bulbs will consume most of the electricity... Yeah AI uses electricity. So what? It's getting more and more efficient every day. Pretty soon you will have ChatGPT5 on your iPhone using as much power as the wifi.
Value for cost? (Score:2)
I have yet to see ANY indication that the cost of AI in energy, in natural resources, and in the pollution which results from both of these, will be lower than the benefits provided by the technology. Furthermore, it seems that at least in the short term AI will have significant social costs - increased loss of privacy, major labour market disruptions, further increases of wealth concentration, etc.
While one might argue that AI could help us fight climate change, it seems like a lousy bet to be further incr
Re: (Score:2)
> I have yet to see ANY indication that the cost of AI in energy, in natural resources, and in the pollution which results from both of these, will be lower than the benefits provided by the technology.
The best measure of a "benefit" is how much people are willing to pay.
If people won't pay for AI, it won't grow and won't be a problem.
Or, perhaps you are saying you are smarter than "common people," and you get to decide how they spend their money.
Have moral compass, not dollar compass (Score:2)
Cocaine sounds like a hell of a benefit by your measures
If AI is so smart (Score:1)
Why canâ(TM)t it figure out how to reduce its power consumption or design new means to generate power? Oh wait because itâ(TM)s all bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
> Why canâ(TM)t it figure out how to reduce its power consumption
Machine learning is being used for new transistor designs and new PNR (Place and Route) algorithms for ASICs that will reduce the power consumption of future AI.
Machine learning is also being applied to deep learning hyperparameters and neural pruning that will reduce power consumption on existing hardware.
[1]Pruning (artificial neural network) [wikipedia.org]
[2]Hyperparameter (machine learning) [wikipedia.org]
> or design new means to generate power?
Machine learning is being applied to semiconductor technologies used in PV solar and the design of turbine blades.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruning_(artificial_neural_network)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperparameter_(machine_learning)
I know where the energy can be harvested (Score:2)
Stop the AI brainwashing and you'll save gigawatt-hours of websites not serving billions of pages talking about this stuff for nothing.
AI efficiencies? (Score:2)
Maybe AI can develop better synergies and efficiencies for maximizing bittorent and crypto mining? Would that satisfy the technological luddites?
Off-Cycle Increases - Be Careful (Score:2)
Items like the electrification of home heating are something of a shell-game. Sure, they represent new drain on the electrical system, but they're a bit of a shell game on consumption. The usage was there - it's changing source. So consumption-wise it's flat-ish, with the "ish" part being about the relative efficiency of the act of heating the home. These things matter, and they're complicated... but they're reasonable.
AI consumption is brand new, unprecedented draw, without a historical parallel. So you'd
FFS, just ban it already. (Score:2)
Crypto with it. Both are a guaranteed environmental disaster that accomplishes jack shit other than shuffling entropy.
Also saves energy... (Score:2)
They can't measure how much energy is saved from having better information in many cases.
Mandatory Simpsons quote (Score:2)
[1]"I predict that within 10 years, computers will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the 5 richest kings of Europe will own them" [youtube.com]
- Dr Frink
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykxMqtuM6Ko
If that's so... (Score:2)
...then they should be charged premium rates, and home accounts should be free.
Move the computing to the energy... (Score:3)
Of course, the natural intelligence in me suggests to just build those AI data centres up in Scotland. Or even in Iceland, which has a surplus of renewable, carbon-neutral electricity...
So What? (Score:2)
Why is everything presented in panicked terms? Every goddamn sentence could be preceded with "oh dear God" comma.
It's because that's the only way to get anyone to click on it. It could all be a giant fragrant load of BULL shit, but that's not what's important.
The easiest way to test this is to add "please click" comma to the beginning of every breathless headline, if it fits, then its horseshit fictional clickbait. Thank you.
Possible solution (Score:2)
Since we know more power will be needed, perhaps we should start working on the problem now. Maybe use something like AI to work out possible avenues to approach the problem.
Oh wait.
AI Will Suck (Score:2, Troll)
'Nuff said.