Can we afford to power AI?

06/11/2025 25 min
Can we afford to power AI?

Listen "Can we afford to power AI?"

Episode Synopsis


In the last decade, the number of data centres worldwide has doubled. As the tech bros spend big to render AI an irreplaceable part of our everyday lives, the energy and water required is truly eye-watering. Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and Meta have already seen their cumulative emissions rise by 72% in the last five years, and given the direction AI is headed, it’s likely that our AI footprint today is the smallest it will ever be. Hundreds of millions of people are using AI every day - and that number is growing fast, but is a world with widely available AI actually sustainable? Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app.Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq