Economists have predicted that advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will be a boon to our economy in the years ahead. But at the same time, AI will also be a tremendous drain on our power grid. Microsoft is warning the data centers that produce AI products like ChatGPT are nearing their size limits. A single data center can now consume enough power to equate to hundreds of thousands of homes.
The rapid growth of AI is already being felt on the Texas grid, which has faced capacity issues in recent years. "I have a good friend who sells land for data centers in Texas, and they're all sold out...all the space is used up," says Matt Rosen, AI expert and consultant.
Rosen tells KTRH the industry is looking at a variety of solutions to the space and power crunch. "Faster chips, smaller models, leveraging on-site data centers, that sort of thing," he says. "Microsoft just bought the old Three Mile Island, they're bringing nuclear plants back online...so I think you're going to see nuclear power make a comeback."
Congress has allocated billions in public money on upgrading power capacity over the next few years, but the tech industry will have to do most of the heavy lifting on its own. "If we sit around waiting for the government, it's going to be five years or more," says Rosen. "By then, too much power will be sucked into these AI computing farms."
"We've got to figure out how to make these models more efficient, but there probably is going to be the need for more power," he continues. "So for the average American, it's going to be incumbent on companies and the government alike to pull the levers they can, so we don't have blackouts and brownouts in the years to come."
Photo: E+