Vaire, a U.K. startup that is working on a computer chip technology that could radically reduce the amount of energy required to run AI workloads, says initial tests of its new chip components show that it could halve the amount of electricity required to run many computations, including those used in artificial intelligence.
If the results hold up—and they have yet to be independently verified, although test kits of Vaire’s chip are currently en route to potential customers and academic labs—the breakthrough could lead to significant commercial adoption of the unusual technology, which is known as reversible computing. Ultimately reversible computing holds out the prospect of chips that could recycle almost all the energy they require and emit almost no heat.
The technology behind Vaire’s chips could address one of the most significant challenges associated with the AI boom: the amount of energy AI requires. Electricity demand from data centers full of graphics processing units, the specialized computer chips typically used to train and run AI models, is soaring. Microsoft has even cut a deal with Constellation Energy to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor at the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania entirely to supply one of the software firm’s new AI data centers.
Globally, the International Energy Agency has forecast that electricity demand from datacenters will more than double by 2030 to 945 terawatt-hours, or about 3% of global energy demand and an amount equivalent to the energy that all of Japan currently consumes. AI workloads will be the biggest driver of that growth, with the energy demands for AI workloads in data centers set to quadruple in the next five years. What’s more, many AI industry insiders think the IEA’s projections are too conservative.
That energy consumption is also raising substantial fears about the impact AI will have on the environment. The carbon footprint of AI systems is difficult to estimate, since it depends largely on the power sources for any particular data center. Many AI data centers in the U.S. and Europe are being built using renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, or nuclear power, which does not emit much carbon dioxide, but in other regions, substantial amounts of gas or coal-fired power are being used, increasing CO2 emissions. There is also a concern that tech companies are purchasing so much green power for their data centers, that it is forcing other potential customers to fall back on fossil fuels.
