Let the AI revolution become a valuable opportunity for the energy revolution
Recently, good news has continued in the field of artificial intelligence. Self-driving cars such as Radish Fast Run are rapidly landing, and the Hong Kong SAR Government has announced that the "Hong Kong version of ChatGPT" will be promoted to all government departments within this year... The field of artificial intelligence is ushering in an unprecedented accelerated development trend, not only achieving breakthroughs at the technical level, but also demonstrating unprecedented innovation and integration in application scenarios and models. More and more traditional industries are actively embracing "artificial intelligence +", hoping to achieve overtaking in corners in a new round of technological competition. The rapid development of artificial intelligence is giving rise to tremendous changes in the entire industry chain.
Although the development of artificial intelligence has broad prospects, its high energy consumption problem cannot be ignored. An article in the journal Nature mentioned that searches driven by generative artificial intelligence consume four to five times the energy of traditional web search. Google's artificial intelligence training consumes about 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of all households in a U.S. state capital (Atlanta). With the development of artificial intelligence, its electricity consumption is still surging. According to the Global Times, by 2030, U.S. data center electricity consumption is expected to increase from 3% of the U.S. total in 2022 to 8%. In the UK, artificial intelligence electricity consumption is expected to soar by 500% over the next 10 years. By 2034, global data center energy consumption is expected to reach 158 billion kilowatt-hours, which is equivalent to the national electricity consumption of India. Based on this, Sam Ultraman, former CEO of OpenAI, proposed that "the technology of future AI depends on energy."
The massive consumption of energy has also affected the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. An environmental report recently released by Google pointed out that since 2019, its total greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 48%. Last year alone, Google generated 14.3 million tons of carbon dioxide, an increase of 13% year-on-year in 2022. The trend of increasing electricity consumption will continue in the future. Similarly, Microsoft has increased its carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 30% since 2020.
It can be seen that whether from the perspective of promoting the further development of artificial intelligence or from the perspective of achieving the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, without a clean and sustainable power supply, the miracle created by the development of artificial intelligence can only be a flash in the pan. If my country wants to seize the opportunity in the competition in the era of artificial intelligence, it is imperative to promote the coordinated development of green power and artificial intelligence as soon as possible.
We must prepare for rainy days and continuously improve the green power system to ensure the development of artificial intelligence. The western region of my country is rich in renewable energy such as hydropower, wind power, and photovoltaic power generation. It provides unique conditions for my country to develop green energy. Currently, clean energy bases in Qinghai, Xinjiang and other places are under construction in full swing. In this process, attention should be paid to the orderly advancement of clean energy projects to avoid "a swarm of bees" and causing subsequent vicious competition. At the same time, it is necessary to actively build energy storage facilities to ensure the stability of the power system, increase wind power and photovoltaic grid access rates, and truly use clean energy.
Open up obstacles and implement the country's strategic deployment of "calculating numbers in the east and calculating numbers in the west". The western region of my country is rich in renewable energy and has the potential to develop data centers and meet the computing power needs of the eastern region. "Eastern and Western calculations" is an important strategy to integrate layout from a national perspective, optimize resource allocation, and improve resource use efficiency. However, the current realization of "counting in the east and counting in the west" still faces some bottleneck problems. For example, the network transmission cost for data flow back and forth between the east and the west is too high, which has exceeded the affordability of enterprises in the east. Massive data is transmitted between regions, putting forward higher requirements for network and data security. It is necessary to deeply understand the strategic significance of "counting in the east and counting in the west", adhere to the combination of good government and effective market, establish a linkage mechanism between the east and west, significantly reduce the cost of data transmission in the east and west, and effectively solve technical obstacles to massive data transmission.
In addition, it is necessary to continuously improve the technical level and reduce the unit energy consumption of artificial intelligence research and development and product application. It is necessary to develop and apply advanced green technology products and equipment, such as high-density integrated IT equipment, efficient refrigeration systems, etc. At the same time, improve algorithm efficiency, such as optimizing algorithms, reducing model parameters, improving computing performance, etc.
The development of artificial intelligence is a big test of human energy utilization methods. If it is not handled well, mankind will face an unprecedented energy crisis. But we can't give up eating just because of choking. It is necessary to promote the development of green clean energy, use advanced AI technology to empower energy companies, improve resource and energy utilization efficiency, and truly realize a positive interaction between artificial intelligence and energy transformation. Turning crises into opportunities makes the AI revolution a valuable opportunity for the energy revolution.
