Blog

DEEP seeks to foster an emerging field of research that examines the environmental impacts of the digital economy. The program is invested in supporting early-, mid-, and late-career researchers in this field. It achieves this through the research it funds and by building an online community. The DEEP blog is one community-building space where we celebrate the work of contributors who are interested in the environmental impacts of the digital economy.

All analysis and opinions expressed by blog contributors are solely those of the individual authors, and do not reflect the positions or views of the Digital Economy and Environment Program.

AI’s Cooling Problem: How Data Centers Are Transforming Water Use

By: Mara Pusic The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the rapid deployment of high-performance accelerated servers have dramatically transformed the energy use of data centers. U.S. data centers now make up about 4.4.% of electricity consumption nationwide, up from about 1.9% in 2018, and it is predicted that by 2028, this number could climb as high as 12.0%. Rising energy consumption is not the only environmental concern associated with AI. Data centers also have a th

Speed First, Safety Last, and More Energy

By: Dave Rejeski In May, OpenAI announced a $6.5 billion investment in a startup called io, a partnership with the former Apple design...