Does AI pose a threat to sustainable development?
MA XUEJING/CHINA DAILY Editor's note: The 2025 World Economic Forum, being held in Davos from Monday to Friday under the theme "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age", is expected to foster a spirit of cooperation and optimism in the digital age in a more sustainable way, despite the different positions of the participants and global uncertainties. As a result, the power consumption of a typical hyper-scale data center is expected to rise from its current level of 30-40 megawatts to over 300 MW within the next three to five years. While AI consumes a significant amount of energy, its data centers need extensive cooling systems and utilize large amounts of clean, purified water. An IEA study found that data center power consumption accounted for 1-1.3 percent of the global electricity demand in 2022. Also, data center power consumption is expected to rapidly approach the level of electric vehicles' consumption worldwide, which is projected to account for about 2 percent of the global demand by 2026.
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