17/02/2026
There is an ever-increasing concern of the catastrophic impact that AI will have on the world as we know it, from its upturning of the worldwide employment market through to the centralisation of human intelligence (and power) in the hands of a wealthy few. For me personally, one of the more sickening impacts emerging are the enormous environmental impacts of AI, specifically from the resource demands of data centres.
According to the International Energy Agency a typical AI-focused data center consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the larger centers under construction today will consume 20 times that (https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/).
This is particularly disturbing to me because I have dedicated my professional life to reducing the energy consumption of residential homes and small businesses. I'm conscious that the energy savings from our homes are small compared to government and industry, and yet the collective progress we have been making to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions is likely to be gazumped by the impact of AI's resource hungry data centres.
There are many good people around the world attempting to introduce ethical constraints and regulations on the AI wildfire, but they are fighting a losing battle up against powerful, vested interests. I'm at a loss for what I can do personally, other than a few simple acts of conscientious abstinence which I will share below. Their impact is small, yet they are all that we can do (easily) to reduce demand for this technology. And like improving the energy efficiency of your home the impact on the country's combined consumption is small, yet they are actions that we have the biggest influence over. Here's what I propose we all do:
1. When you search Google, type "-ai" at the end. This tells Google that you don't want the AI summary. Apparently this AI summary uses 10x as much energy and water as a standard Google search.
2. Change the settings on software that uses AI (like Adobe Acrobat) so it doesn't constantly offer you AI generated summaries.
3. Seriously consider not using AI tools like ChatGPT. Or at least: refrain from doing 'frivolous' queries, eg to generate video of a cat dancing...
4. If you *do* need to use an AI product, try to only use it for good outcomes that will help you make the world a better place.
5. Ask your workplace if it is developing guidelines for the ethical use of AI in your employment, and encourage them to include education on the environmental costs of non-essential AI use.
In making these suggestions I fully appreciate there will likely come a time when using AI is unavoidable, especially in our workplaces. Yet the more awareness we generate of the potential negative impacts of this technology, the more likely we are to be able to manage and mitigate the consequences.
