In today’s day and age, it’s undeniable that Artificial Intelligence(AI) has integrated itself into our technology and way of life.

First developed and exhibited throughout the 1950s and only rapidly advancing throughout the rest of the 20th century and into the new millennium, AI was mostly used for science, research, and other technological advancements.

It wasn’t until the 2020s that AI became mainstream to the public. ChatGPT(OpenAI) debuted publicly in the Fall of ‘22 and has become one of the top tech companies of the decade.

It didn’t stop there. Major corporations and businesses hopped on the new gen AI bandwagon, such as Amazon, Apple, Duolingo, Google, Meta, and thousands more, but these companies aren’t new to the realm of Artificial Intelligence, and everyday people aren’t just now accessing it.

AI has been in our world since day one. Services such as Siri, ELIZA(an early chatbot), IBM’s chess playing computer(Deep Blue), Alexa, and dozens more have been around for a while.

But why now? Why is AI such a polarizing topic? And why do we already have a robotic slur for AI?

ChatGPT is the core of the AI argument and is more often than not the scapegoat for other AI companies and the problems surrounding the use of generative AI.

Most, if not all, Generative AI programs have been the hot topic surrounding environmental and emission concerns.

Instead of being stored on a cloud, a majority of AI companies rely on high energy consuming data centers. One report states that between 2023-2030, AI data center capacity will rise by 33% each year.

And these data centers aren’t cheap; billions of dollars have been invested in building these humongous centers, and not to mention the absurd amount of energy needed to power these colossal structures.

Research has shown that by as early as 2035, the combined energy of generative AI centers could be equivalent to that of Nations such as Russia and Japan.

Not only do these massive servers require tons and tons of energy, they also require gallons and gallons of water. Because of the excessive, free use of AI programs, they create overheating problems for the computers.

One way tech giants combat this is by using water cooling systems to cool the overworked computer servers. But most of these data centers are robbing water from places with high water stress levels.

One place in particular, South Memphis, has seen drastic environmental and water problems due to the xAI Servers(Elon Musk’s AI data center).

Concerns in this area include: worsening air quality because of the limited pollution restrictions put on the center, immense water stress and shortages thanks to the unfathomable amount of CPU servers, and power surges and high energy prices on account of the energy requirements the data centers require.

So just how many AI requests are sent in a day that are making these servers so overworked?

Well from ChatGPT alone, they’ve reported around 2.5 billion requests daily! And from OpenAI’s (ChatGPT) 2024 report, they’ve shared that September-June has the highest amount of traffic, coincidently aligning with the average American School year.

So is their report purely chance, or are the younger generations now heavily relying on the use of generative AI? Only the future will tell, and for now in the controversy of Human Vs. Machine work, Humans still have a chance to make AI more sustainable and beneficial for our future.