this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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132
How Much Energy Does It Take to Power Billions of AI Queries? (spectrum.ieee.org)
submitted 1 month ago by flango@lemmy.eco.br to c/technology@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

All generative AI queries could hit 329 billion per day by 2030. See the big picture on AI's energy use, and how it's reshaping our world.

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[–] Jrockwar@feddit.uk 42 points 1 month ago (15 children)

These figures are too cherry picked for the shock value. You could go the opposite end and say that (these are all true, I've tried my best to research them):

8.5 Wh (average of all daily queries for a user) is also...

  • Equivalent to running a 2000 W hair dryer or a kettle for 20 seconds
  • Equivalent to idling a car during a traffic light and not turning off the engine
  • A quarter of the energy required to reheat a ready meal in the microwave (roughly 45 Wh)
  • The power usage of a Macbook screen over just 30 minutes.

850 MWh (whole consumption of all AI queries in the world) is also equivalent to...

  • The power consumption of ONE single cruise ship for 12h (link)
  • Charging 0.002% of the 75 million electric cars in the world
  • The energy stored in the fuel tanks of 2000 petrol cars - a small stadium car park in Europe
  • The amount of energy the largest solar plant in Spain or Germany generate... In a couple of hours.

So yes - AI bad... But for other reasons. This is a diversion. Datacentres powered by coal are bad. Cruise ships are worse.

The problem isn't that the whole world needs less than a solar farm's worth of energy for AI. The bigger problem is the social damage of AI - including the fact that this "expansion at all costs" is justifying getting that energy from non-renewable sources.

But seriously, one single cruise ship uses more energy than all of the AI in the world. They serve no useful purpose and there are hundreds of those.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Energy usage may not be astronomical right now but AI is going into everything. Like EVERYTHING! It'll be running even when you don't think it's running, when you think it makes no sense to be running. Usage of AI itself will skyrocket and the fastest energy sources that can be acquired are likely to come first.

[–] null@lemmy.nullspace.lol 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And it will also become more and more efficient over that time.

[–] architect@thelemmy.club 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Once this thing gets trained it’s not going to be free.

It feels similar to when I was first on the internet. Older people thought it was a fad. They made jokes about it on sitcoms. The bubble burst and everyone was like ahhh knew it the internet sucks! Then the smart phone hit 🚀

[–] null@lemmy.nullspace.lol 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"This thing"

[–] architect@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 month ago

That thing. I like your name.

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