"The figures have been compiled by the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they are the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general as the use of chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini soared in 2025."
"The figures show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI use are also now equivalent to more than 8% of global aviation emissions. His study used technology companies' own reporting and he called for stricter requirements for them to be more transparent about their climate impact. The environmental cost of this is pretty huge in absolute terms, he said. At the moment society is paying for these costs, not the tech companies."
"De Vries-Gao found that the 2025 carbon footprint of AI systems could be as high as 80m tonnes, while the water used could reach 765bn litres. He said it was the first time AI's water impact had been estimated and showed that AI water use alone was more than a third higher than previous estimates of all datacentre water use."
AI activity in 2025 generated an estimated 80 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and consumed approximately 765 billion litres of water. AI-related water use now exceeds global bottled-water demand and is over a third higher than prior estimates for all datacentre water use. Estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI equal more than 8% of global aviation emissions. Calculations used technology companies' own reporting, prompting calls for stricter transparency requirements and for companies to bear some environmental costs. AI-focused datacentres draw electricity comparable to aluminium smelters, with datacentre electricity demand expected to more than double by 2030.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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