By Robert Booth
Publication Date: 2025-12-18 11:15:00
It is said that the AI boom will mean that by 2025 as much carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere as all of New York City has emitted.
The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology was estimated in a study published on Wednesday, which also found that AI-related water consumption now exceeds the total global demand for bottled water.
The numbers were compiled by Dutch scientist Alex de Vries-Gao, founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they were the first attempt to measure the specific impact of artificial intelligence, rather than data centers in general, as the use of chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini surged in 2025.
The figures show that estimated greenhouse gas emissions from the use of AI now also account for more than 8% of global aviation emissions. In his study, he used technology companies’ own reporting and called for stricter requirements…
