UN calls on AI companies to stop hiding human costs of AI

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has today called for AI data centres to come clean on energy and water use, claiming they already chew through more electricity than most countries.

The rise in AI has led to an explosion in data centre construction – a report from JLL suggested 100GW of new data centres will be built in the next four years, effectively doubling global capacity – and subsequently demand for water, energy and land.

The International Energy Agency has said global electricity demand for data centres is up 17%, versus overall growth of 3%, and that’s led the US to keep open gas and oil power plants previously set to be shut down.

High growth and high demand

UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ speech, part of London Climate Action Week, didn’t pin all the blame on AI data centres. He also called for efforts to cut emissions, address methane pollution, and increase renewable energy production, alongside other challenges.

But Guterres noted that AI data centres were a major driver behind growth in demand for energy. While he said AI has benefits – it could help address climate solutions, Guterres suggested – he noted that it’s also “hungry” for land, water and power.

“The data centres behind it already consume more electricity than most nations,” Guterres noted. “By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries – and enough water to meet the basic needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub‑Saharan Africa for an entire year.”

Time to come clean on costs of AI

To address that, Guterres introduced the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, calling on all major AI companies to measure and publish details about the environmental impact of their systems.

“I am calling on every major AI company to measure and publicly disclose the full environmental impact of its systems – carbon, water, and land footprints – and to commit to power every data centre with renewable energy by 2030,” Guterres said.

But asking for better behaviour from Big Tech may not be enough. Plenty of tech firms had net zero targets in place, but AI has already derailed many, with Google’s emissions up 51% over five years.

Given those targets were clearly not written in stone, but subject to the prevailing winds of hype, perhaps we shouldn’t ask Big Tech to share such data and re-make pledges they previously set aside. Indeed, one survey of UK data centre companies suggested water use just isn’t a problem, showing how relying on self-reporting is rarely enough.

Instead, we need to require it – and regulators need to step in. That said, the EU already has laws requiring data centre companies to track such details, but lobbying from US tech companies means this key information is still not being released to the public, investigative journalists have found.

Guterres added: “No more hidden costs. No more shifting the burden onto those least able to bear it. It is time to come clean. If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now.”