Year in Review Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI is an energy hog. Is the tech worth the environmental cost?

AI is on track to be paradigm-shifting tech, but its harms could outweigh any benefits

An illustration of a data center.

As the use of generative AI goes up, the need for more data centers and electricity also rises.

QUANTIC69/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES

By Lauren Leffer

It might seem like magic. Type a request into ChatGPT, click a button and — presto! — here’s a five-paragraph analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and, as an added bonus, it’s written in iambic pentameter. Or tell DALL-E about the chimeric animal from your dream, and out comes an image of a gecko-wolf-starfish hybrid.