this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
158 points (97.6% liked)

Technology

77815 readers
3078 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
158
AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 22 hours ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(25)00278-8

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org -2 points 22 hours ago (18 children)

The figures show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI use are also now equivalent to more than 8% of global aviation emissions. His study used technology companies’ own reporting and he called for stricter requirements for them to be more transparent about their climate impact. “The environmental cost of this is pretty huge in absolute terms,” he said. “At the moment society is paying for these costs, not the tech companies. The question is: is that fair? If they are reaping the benefits of this technology, why should they not be paying some of the costs?”

So that's actually not that much? After everybody was screaming that AI is boiling the world, 8% of global aviation emissions is kind of low. And you might hate AI, but it is really more useful than Katie from Sales getting skin cancer on a beach in Thailand or that dude getting drunk on Mallorca or whatever those billionaires are doing in their private jets

[–] patatahooligan@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

As far as I can understand, that number refers to current electricity usage. So the actual energy cost is significantly higher and it's currently growing at a rapid pace.

Also what's with the whataboutism? Aviation emissions are a huge problem. We don't use it as a bar for whether something is significant or not.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago

And it's self-reported by the datacenters. I don't want to just say that their numbers aren't reliable, but they have a vested interest in downplaying their impact.

These are datacenters that get approval to use certain power plant styles with pollution capture technology installed that are then building more generators than approved and installing none of the pollution capture tech. So extra pollution and none of the mitigation.

load more comments (16 replies)