A recent study reveals grim numbers about the environmental effects of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence produced carbon dioxide emissions worldwide will be as large as the entire city of New York in 2025, predicts recent research.

According to the same study, the amount of water needed by artificial intelligence has already exceeded the amount of bottled water needed worldwide.

In the production of artificial intelligence, water is used to cool the servers that do the calculations and to generate electricity.

The study is the first to attempt to measure the effects of artificial intelligence on the environment alone, and not data centers as a whole, the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao says.

De Vries-Gao is the founder of Digiconomist, which carried out the study. The findings of the study have at least been reported British newspaper The Guardian.

Results According to

The research used the own reports of technology companies developing artificial intelligence and data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

It is still almost impossible to get exact numbers, because technology companies such as Google, Meta and Amazon do not break down the numbers in their reports, says someone focused on technology and electronics publication Techxplore.

De Vries-Gao demands more transparency from companies about their climate impacts.

”[Tekoälyn] The environmental costs are enormous. Currently, societies pay the costs, not technology companies. The question is: Is it fair? If they get the benefits of these technologies, why don’t they have to pay some of the costs?” the researcher asks.

Research predicts that in 2025 the carbon footprint of artificial intelligence systems may rise to almost 80 million tons.

The amount of water used for artificial intelligence calculations, on the other hand, can be almost 765 billion liters. According to De Vries-Gao, the amount is a third more than previous estimates, which measured the total amount of water required by data centers.

Foxglove, which pursues fairness in the technology sector Donald Campbellin according to, in the future, one data center can produce climate emissions equivalent to several international airports.

Popular generative artificial intelligences include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot and Meta’s Meta AI.