Understanding the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence from personal usage to planetary scale
Discover how your AI usage affects the environment
While AI's projected energy consumption is significant, it's comparable to other major digital technologies. The key difference is AI's potential for productivity gains (0.25-0.6% annual growth) and environmental monitoring capabilities that could offset energy costs through improved efficiency across other sectors.
Wind and solar combined added 513 TWh to global energy in 2023, the fastest growth in history. However, AI's energy demand is growing exponentially (doubling every 100 days) while renewable energy growth, though record-breaking, follows a more linear trajectory. This represents one of the most significant environmental challenges of our time.
This chart illustrates the critical gap between AI's exponential energy demand growth and renewable energy capacity expansion. By 2026, AI systems could consume 1,000 TWh annually, requiring unprecedented renewable energy deployment to avoid increased fossil fuel dependence.