An answer to AI’s energy addiction? More AI, says the IEA

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its first major report on the AI gold rush’s impact on global energy consumption — and its findings paint a worrying, and perhaps contradictory, picture.  

Energy use from data centres, including for artificial intelligence applications, is predicted to double over the next five years to 3% of global energy use. AI-specific power consumption could drive over half of this growth globally, the report found.

Some data centres today consume as much electricity as 100,000 households. The hyperscalers of the future could gobble up 20x that number, according to the IEA. By 2030, data centres are predicted to run on 50% renewable energy, the rest comprising a mix of coal, nuclear power, and new natural gas-fired plants.

The findings paint a bleak picture for the climate, but there’s a silver lining, the IEA said. While AI is set to ...