IT Sustainability Think Tank: The digital diet and the growing cost of AI energy use | Computer Weekly

"The ethereal cloud of the 2010s has officially hit the ground, and it is heavy. As we move through early 2026, the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has shifted from a software race into a high-stakes competition for physical survival - specifically for land, water, and the copper wiring of our aging power grids. Computer Weekly's recent reporting on Microsoft's "Community-First" initiative highlights a watershed moment."

"Microsoft vice chair Brad Smith is essentially calling for an end to the free lunch era of datacentre expansion. His central argument - that profitable tech giants must "pay their own way" to prevent residential electricity bills from skyrocketing - is a necessary pivot. But as we look at the sheer scale of the AI build-out, it becomes clear that simply asking Big Tech to write a bigger cheque is only half the solution."

"If we are to avoid a future where AI growth is decoupled from our planetary boundaries, we must move beyond the idea that hyperscalers are the sole curators of the carbon footprint. True sustainability requires a recalibrated landscape where enterprises and individuals become active participants in a "Digital Diet." We must apply the principles of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 - Responsible Consumption - to our digital lives, moving from a model of corporate cleanup to one of shared responsibility."

AI infrastructure expansion is transforming datacentre growth into a contest for land, water and existing electrical infrastructure, threatening residential power stability. Microsoft leadership is urging that profitable tech companies contribute financially to infrastructure impacts rather than externalize costs. Reliance on hyperscalers alone will not contain the environmental footprint of generative AI; corporations and individuals must share responsibility through behaviour changes termed a "Digital Diet." Generative AI queries consume substantially more energy than standard web searches, with multimodal outputs raising electricity demands further. Applying UN Sustainable Development Goal 12—Responsible Consumption—to digital habits is presented as a pathway toward shared, systemic sustainability.

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