Generative AI doesn't have to be a power hog after all

Like a mid-life crisis, with dad throwing out his fuel-efficient sedan for a gas-guzzling muscle car, the rise of generative AI (gen AI) and its power-hungry GPUs looked to be the death knell for any concerns about compute power efficiency and corporate sustainability.

Early numbers seemed to show this nightmare coming true. After years of steady rises in commitments to reducing power consumption and creating efficient computing capabilities, Aberdeen's research in 2023 showed for the first time a small decline in these metrics, as businesses put aside efficiency commitments in the race to deploy powerful computing infrastructures to leverage artificial intelligence (AI).

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It's hard to fault businesses for this lapse. After all, the breathless hype that accompanied the first wave of gen AI left many organizations believing that they ...