Three takeaways about AI’s energy use and climate impacts

We found that the same exact query, with the same exact energy demand, will have a very different climate impact depending on what the data center is powered by, and that depends on the location and the time of day. For example, querying a data center in West Virginia could cause nearly twice the emissions of querying one in California, according to calculations based on average data from 2024.

This point shows why it matters where tech giants are building data centers, what the grid looks like in their chosen locations, and how that might change with more demand from the new infrastructure. 

3. There is still so much that we don’t know when it comes to AI and energy. 

Our reporting resulted in estimates that are some of the most specific and comprehensive out there. But ultimately, we still have no idea what many of the biggest, most influential models are adding up to in terms of energy and emissions. None of the companies we reached out to were willing to provide numbers during our reporting. Not one.

Adding up our estimates can only go so far, in part because AI is increasingly everywhere. While today you might generally have to go to a dedicated site and type in questions, in the future AI could be stitched into the fabric of our interactions with technology. (See my colleague Will Douglas Heaven’s new story on Google’s I/O showcase: “By putting AI into everything, Google wants to make it invisible.”)

AI could be one of the major forces that shape our society, our work, and our power grid. Knowing more about its consequences could be crucial to planning our future. 

To dig into our reporting, give the main story a read. And if you’re looking for more details on how we came up with our numbers, you can check out this behind-the-scenes piece.

There are also some great related stories in this package, including one from James Temple on the data center boom in the Nevada desert, one from David Rotman about how AI’s rise could entrench natural gas, and one from Will Douglas Heaven on a few technical innovations that could help make AI more efficient. Oh, and I also have a piece on why nuclear isn’t the easy answer some think it is. 

Find them, and the rest of the stories in the package, here. 

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