Data centres will use twice as much energy by 2030 — driven by AI

Artificial intelligence might feel weightless in the cloud — but the energy it takes to power that cloud is anything but light. A new report from the International Energy Agency says data centers, driven in large part by AI, are on track to more than double their electricity use by 2030 — enough to rival Japan’s total energy consumption today. Meeting that demand means more power plants, grid upgrades, and — in some places — a longer dependence on fossil fuels. The digital future, it turns out, runs on watts. Sophia Chen with Nature has the full story.