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Bill Gates defended the rapid increase in energy consumption due to artificial intelligence systems. According to him, the technology would eventually compensate for the high electricity consumption.
Speaking in London, Gates urged environmentalists and governments “not to overstate” concerns about the vast amounts of energy needed to run new generative AI systems, as big tech companies like Microsoft rush to invest tens of billions of dollars in massive new data centers.
Data centers will increase global electricity consumption by 2 to 6 percent, the billionaire said.
“The question is will AI accelerate a reduction of more than 6 percent? And the answer is: definitely,” said Gates, the Microsoft co-founder who has been a prolific investor in companies developing sustainable energy and carbon reduction technologies.
In May, Microsoft admitted that greenhouse gas emissions have increased by nearly a third since 2020, largely due to data center construction.
Gates, who left Microsoft’s board in 2020 but remains an adviser to CEO Satya Nadella, said tech companies would pay a “green premium” – or a higher price – for clean energy as they look for new energy sources, helping to stimulate economic growth. development and implementation.
“The tech companies are the people who are willing to pay a premium and help increase green energy capacity,” he said at the Breakthrough Energy Summit in London on Thursday.
The Breakthrough Energy group – founded by Gates and which also counts Jeff Bezos, Masayoshi Son and Jack Ma as investors – has invested in more than 100 companies developing renewable energy and other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The event in London included Prince William, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and John Podesta, the US’s top climate diplomat.
Major technology companies including Microsoft, Amazon and Google have announced plans to invest tens of billions of dollars to develop the computing infrastructure needed to run AI systems in countries around the world.
But the limited availability of electricity is already posing a challenge for companies looking to implement the new technology.
An April report from the U.S. Department of Energy found that AI is “expected to be the largest driver of U.S. data center load growth for the foreseeable future.”
While companies like Amazon and Microsoft have signed long-term power purchase agreements with wind and solar generators, these deals “typically do not match electricity demand with local resources on an hour-by-hour basis,” the agency said. That meant there was “no guarantee that all electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions would be offset” by the agreements.
In May, the Electric Power Research Institute said data centers could consume up to 9 percent of U.S. electricity generation by 2030, more than double what they currently use.
Despite arguing that tech companies are driving the rollout of green energy, he said one of his biggest concerns was “getting enough electricity” needed to meet growing demand while cleaning up major sectors such as cement and steel to make.
“The amount of green electricity we need for the transition will not be available nearly as quickly as we need,” he said.
This made it likely that the global target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 would be missed, with the argument that ‘another 10 or 15 years would be more realistic’.”.
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