Climate impact of AI vastly underestimated amid warning over data centres

Energy use by AI data centres in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of carbon dioxide —about as much as generated by 2.7m people — over the next 10 years

AI data centres require huge amounts of electricity to operate — much more than the data centres used to store online data. File picture

The UK government vastly underestimated the climate impact of artificial intelligence, it has emerged, after officials raised their estimate of carbon emissions from AI by a factor of more than 100.

According to new data quietly published this week, energy use by AI data centres in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) —about as much as generated by 2.7m people — over the next 10 years.