{"id":5268,"date":"2026-01-28T10:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/?p=5268"},"modified":"2026-01-28T10:52:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:52:33","slug":"environmental-downside-of-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/lenvers-ecologique-de-lintelligence-artificielle-ia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Environmental Downside of Artificial Intelligence (AI)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iStock-1561638855_reduit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5269\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iStock-1561638855_reduit.jpg 788w, https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iStock-1561638855_reduit-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone\u2019s talking about artificial intelligence (AI). Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, DALL\u00b7E are just a few of the many tools powered by this type of algorithm. According to Forbes, nearly 34 million images are generated by AI every day. It is now estimated that over 70% of images posted on social media have been generated by one of the roughly 2,000 AI tools currently available (Marr, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, these technologies do not run without energy. Often overlooked, behind every query are data centers consuming large amounts of energy. Here are some stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A single query sent to ChatGPT consumes 10 times more energy than a Google search (UN, 2024).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Energy demand from these data centers is expected to double by 2030, reaching 945 terawatt-hours (IEA, 2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For comparison, Canada produced 639 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2022 (CNA, 2024).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The electricity consumed is not always produced from renewable sources. Moreover, these data centers generate significant heat that must be dissipated\u2014often using water. AI tools could soon require water consumption equivalent to six times Denmark\u2019s total water usage (UN, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AI can be a powerful tool, provided we use it responsibly and sustainably. At <strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-theme-palette-1-color\">GCM Enviro Synergies<\/mark><\/strong>we are currently working on pilot projects in collaboration with our subsidiary <strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);color:#1be1cd\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Curiousity<\/mark><\/strong> to increase our productivity and better serve our clients in the future. We are integrating AI into our practices, yes, but we are doing so responsibly and under the supervision of our in-house experts! This is another great benefit of our multi-subsidiary structure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Antoine Touchette, CEP \u2013 Environment<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>References :<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Natural Resources Canada (2024) energy-factbook-2024-2025.pdf. (n.d.). https:\/\/energy-information.canada.ca\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-10\/energy-factbook-2024-2025.pdf<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IEA. (2025, April 10). <em>AI is set to drive surging electricity demand from data centers while offering the potential to transform how the energy sector works \u2013 News<\/em>. IEA. https:\/\/www.iea.org\/news\/ai-is-set-to-drive-surging-electricity-demand-from-data-centres-while-offering-the-potential-to-transform-how-the-energy-sector-works<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marr, B. (2025, March 10). <em>15 Mind-Blowing AI Statistics Everyone Must Know About Now<\/em>. Forbes. https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/bernardmarr\/2025\/03\/10\/15-mind-blowing-ai-statistics-everyone-must-know-about-now\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UN. (2024, September 21). <em>AI has an environmental problem. Here's what the world can do about it.<\/em> https:\/\/www.unep.org\/news-and-stories\/story\/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>L\u2019intelligence artificielle (IA) est sur toutes les l\u00e8vres. Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, DALL\u00b7E ne sont qu\u2019une fraction des outils reposants sur ce type d\u2019algorithme. Selon Forbes,&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":5269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Non classifi\u00e9(e)"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iStock-1561638855_reduit.jpg",788,443,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Marie-Claude","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/author\/marie-claude\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Non classifi\u00e9(e)","slug":"non-classifiee","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":13,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Non classifi\u00e9(e)","category_nicename":"non-classifiee","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5272,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268\/revisions\/5272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcmenvirosynergies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5268"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}