Artificial intelligence's energy demand threatens the world!

The high demand for computing power by artificial intelligence is leading to the adoption of restrictive decisions worldwide. Artificial intelligence has recently gained great popularity. With the adoption of generative models in daily use, the utilization of these technologies has increased. However, while it may seem sufficient to simply enter a website and write a short prompt, a massive amount of processing power is required in the background. Governments have now been informed that restrictions will be imposed on the data centers that provide this processing power.

According to a report by The Financial Times, countries such as China, Singapore, and Ireland have recently imposed restrictions on the establishment of new data centers due to environmental concerns. Ireland, in particular, which was preferred due to its low tax rates and access to a high-capacity underwater cable network, has introduced stricter regulations, threatening future projects.

New projects in Dublin by various data center firms such as Vantage, EdgeConneX, and Equinix have been rejected by the country's energy and water regulators. New data centers have not been permitted to connect to the electrical infrastructure. Germany and Loudoun in the U.S. state of Virginia have implemented similar regulations, making it mandatory for facilities in residential areas to use renewable energy and convert the generated heat into energy.

The International Energy Agency stated that cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence consume a significant amount of energy and that this consumption will double by 2026. According to the report, data centers, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence account for 2% of global electricity consumption. Technology firms are also evaluating alternatives at this point. For example, Microsoft plans to use nuclear energy for its data centers.