Despite concerns over energy-intensive production and fossil fuel powering the electrical grid, electric vehicles don’t hold a candle to generative artificial intelligence in terms of environmental damage. A recent CalTech and UC Riverside study estimates AI will produce more air pollution than all of California’s cars by 2030. That might sound like the far-off future, but it’s only five years away.
The massive data centers pumping out AI slop are chugging electricity like a freshman defensive tackle at USC with a fake ID. The study found that data centers could account for 11.7 percent of national energy consumption by the end of the decade, compared to less than four percent in 2023. The resulting air pollution to generate that much power would result in a financial burden to public health of $20 billion and kill 1,300 people prematurely. Fast Company explains:
“As AI becomes more deeply embedded in daily life, the resulting air pollution in the form of lung-penetrating fine particles and other federally regulated pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, is only expected to increase. By 2030, the public health burden is expected to be double that of the U.S. steelmaking industry, and could rival that of all the cars, buses, and trucks in California, the study projects.”
The researchers advised regulators to require companies to report their power consumption-generated air pollution. The data would help hold bad actors accountable, but it might be too late. With AI already a hundred-billion-dollar industry, the biggest players in the field surely won’t use their economic might to influence the federal government. All of the clean air gains already seen from the EV transition could be lost because of flimsy virtual assistants.
