"Using artificial intelligence can feel like magic. You type a prompt, and your answer instantly, effortlessly appears. But the magic is an illusion. This one prompt uses roughly 10 times more energy than a standard search. Pull back the curtain, and you discover vast warehouses of computers with a voracious appetite for energy, water and raw minerals. New data centers are fueling a trillion-dollar industrial revolution. This is the biggest infrastructure project in history. All of this, quite literally, scars the earth."
"This is pegmatite that I picked up in Spruce Pine. It was formed in a rare deposit about 300 million years ago. So what has this ancient rock got to do with A.I.? First, the quartz from these rocks is shipped east to China and Taiwan. The purity and heat resistance make it essential in producing this. A semiconductor microchip. They perform the millions of calculations needed to run A.I. models."
Using A.I. consumes significantly more energy than standard searches, with a single prompt using roughly ten times more energy. Massive warehouses of computers require vast energy, water and raw minerals, fueling a trillion-dollar industrial boom and the largest infrastructure project in history. These operations damage landscapes and increase environmental strain. A five-square-mile quarry near Spruce Pine, North Carolina produces as much as 90 percent of the world's high-purity quartz, essential for semiconductor microchips. The quartz is shipped to Asia for chip production, enabling the millions of calculations A.I. models require, while extreme weather and resource pressures threaten local communities and supply chains.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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