Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek unveiled its new chatbot in January 2025, which, they claim, operates at a considerably lower cost and energy consumption than competitors. This could represent a significant breakthrough in reducing the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, as current data centres consume 1-2% of global electricity, according to the International Energy Agency.
DeepSeek's technology was built for just $5.6 million, compared to the billion-dollar investments of American tech giants. According to Goldman Sachs forecasts, data centre energy demands could increase by 160% by 2030, accounting for 4% of global electricity consumption. This is supported by the fact that a single ChatGPT query currently uses nearly ten times as much electricity as a Google search. According to Paul Deane, an expert at University College Cork, Artificial intelligence has an enormous, one might say unbridled, appetite for energy.
According to experts, DeepSeek's more efficient technology could set a new direction for the industry, mainly as specific queries could even be run on smartphones, eliminating the need for data centres. However, David Rolnick, professor at McGill University, warns that society must reconsider the genuine necessity of AI usage, as it is unclear whether the use of algorithms similar to DeepSeek and ChatGPT provides tangible benefits in the majority of cases compared to non-AI-based approaches.
Sources:
Jennifer Collins
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Matthew Rozsa
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JENNIFER McDERMOTT
