Is the AI boom really destroying the environment? | If You're Listening

In the last decade, the number of data centres worldwide has doubled. As the tech bros spend big to render AI an irreplaceable part of our everyday lives, the energy and water required is truly eye-watering. Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and Meta have already seen their cumulative emissions rise by 72% in the last five years, and given the direction AI is headed, it’s likely that our AI footprint today is the smallest it will ever be. Hundreds of millions of people are using AI every day - and that number is growing fast, but is a world with widely available AI actually sustainable? Subscribe: https://ab.co/3yqPOZ5 Watch all episodes of If You're Listening - in our playlist:    • If You're Listening | ABC News In-depth   Welcome to ABC News In-depth, where you'll find our long-form journalism and other videos to help you understand what's going on in the world around you. Watch more ABC News content ad-free on ABC iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1 For more from ABC News, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY Get breaking news and livestreams from our ABC News channel:    / newsonabc   Like ABC News on Facebook:   / abcnews.au   Follow ABC News on Instagram:   / abcnews_au   Follow ABC News on Twitter:   / abcnews   Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNewsIndepth #ABCNewsAustralia