Google's greenhouse gas emissions are growing due to the development of artificial intelligence. According to the tech giant's report, last year, carbon dioxide emissions from its operations reached 14.3 million metric tons, Bloomberg writes.
Last year's result was 48% higher compared to the figures recorded in 2019. In addition, this figure increased by 13% compared to 2022.
Google claims that the reason for this is the growth of energy consumption in data centers and emissions in the supply chain. And as the company seeks to add AI to its products, this could make it harder to reduce emissions in the future.
“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” Google's report says.
Earlier, it was also reported that Google's AI-powered search uses 10 times more energy than traditional search. According to estimates, the answers to all Google searches generated by AI can consume as much energy as the entire country of Ireland.