"While those costs are really important, they are not what's going to impact the local communities where data centers are being built," coauthor Adam Wierman, director of Information Science and Technology at Caltech, said in a statement.
"By 2030 the public health burden is expected to be double that of the U.S. steelmaking industry, and could rival that of all the cars, buses, and trucks in California," the study projects.
Recent Department of Energy estimates found that data center energy use is expected to either double or triple by 2028. Last year alone, data centers produced at least 106 million metric tons of emissions, rivaling those of the domestic commercial airline industry.
When we talk about the costs of AI, it's often discussed in terms of electricity consumed, carbon released into the atmosphere, and water needed to operate massive data centers.
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