Research suggest data centers will emit 2.5 billion tons of greenhouse gas by 2030

A report from Morgan Stanley suggests the datacenter industry is on track to emit 2.5 billion tons by 2030, which is three times higher than the predictions if generative AI had not come into play.

The extra demand from GenAI will reportedly lead to a rise in emissions from 200 million tons this year to 600 million tons by 2030, thanks largely to the construction of more data centers to keep up with the demand for cloud services.

  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
    74·
    2 months ago

    the most fucked up part about this is that it’s not like regular people account for more than a fraction of the AI usage, most of it is just other companies using it to replace workers or just… paying for AI usage instead of fucking paying a stock photo company instead…

    i hate corporations i hate corporations i hate corporations

    • ampersandcastles@lemmy.mlEnglish
      282·
      2 months ago

      Every negative article I read about AI is simply an attribution to capitalism. It’s incredibly funny.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
        4·
        2 months ago

        it’s literally just mechanical looms all over again, this shit happens over and over and over and at no point do people learn that this will continue as long as we allow capitalism to persist.

    • stormeuh@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 months ago

      Don’t forget the garbage listicle websites which pollute every search for “the best x” where x is something like a vacuum cleaner. Judging by the utter uselessness of search engines these days, there must be A LOT of those sites…

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 months ago

      I actually got into a fight over suggesting someone to use stock photos instead of grungy-smeary AI generated images for their (sh)articles, so at least I won’t believe it was too AI generated. Then they insisted on it being their own creation, and how they became an artist through words.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      31·
      2 months ago

      Our planet is literally dying, and humankind is going to be decimated (at least) directly due to the actions of corporations.