Industry body says energy consumption driven by AI up 15% globally in two years as it warns of societal backlash
Datacentres are consuming 6% of electricity in the UK and US, with the growing strain of AI on energy supplies prompting community resistance, according to research.
The proportion of electricity used by vast warehouses stacked with microchips to power AI and the internet has risen 15% worldwide in the past two years as annual global investment in datacentres approaches $1tn (£740bn) – nearly 1% of the global economy, according to the International Data Center Association (IDCA).
6% of UK electricity for datacentres? That’s insane. And with AI demand growing 15% in two years, we’re basically building power plants to run chatbots.
The IDCA says annual investment in datacentres is approaching $1tn—almost 1% of global economy. At what point do we ask if this is really worth the energy cost?
Community resistance is no surprise when datacentres guzzle power while households face higher bills. We need transparency on who’s paying for this surge.
The semiconductor supply chain needs geographic diversification urgently.
A 15% rise in electricity consumption from datacentres in just two years is staggering. If AI keeps growing, we’ll need a grid overhaul, not just more renewables.
Cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated and more frequent.
The platform economy has created massive value but also significant concentration risk.
Accessibility in technology is still treated as an afterthought far too often.
Sustainability in tech manufacturing needs far more attention than it gets.
The sheer amount of data generated every second is almost incomprehensible.
Machine learning models are only as good as the data they’re trained on.
The pace of chip miniaturisation is slowing but architectural gains continue.