Scenario-based forecasting of the global energy demand and carbon footprint of artificial intelligence
Fig 2
Illustration of projected trends in AI computational and energy demand under different scaling scenarios from 2024 to 2050.
Projected AI model growth and energy demand under three scaling scenarios (2024-2050). Panel (a): computational complexity per model (FLOPs). Panel (b): annual model deployments. Panel (c): total computational demand. Panel (d): projected power consumption (TWh/year) for training and inference. Curves show median projections; shaded bands denote 90% confidence intervals. Scenarios include baseline, fewer larger models, and more smaller models.