Axios House: AI's energy appetite meets the clean-energy push

NEW YORK — The energy grid is stressed — yet slowing the pace of AI development to even out supply and demand would delay innovation, Nvidia head of sustainability Josh Parker said at Axios House at Climate Week.

Why it matters: Parker pointed to AI-enabled clean energy enterprises that would stall if deployment paused.

Axios' Amy Harder and Ben Geman spoke with Support + Feed founder Maggie Baird, Parker and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i) at the Sept. 21 Axios House at Climate Week event.

Driving the news: While data centers can use large quantities of water to keep chips cool, new technologies aim to minimize their climate impact.

• For instance, Parker said Nvidia is "exceptionally energy-efficient," pointing to the company's closed-loop liquid cooling that maintains the chip temperature at 113℉ and lessens water evaporation.

• Higher electricity costs for the general consumer is another concern that data centers are trying to mitigate, Parker said, including by curtailing their power draw during peak grid stress periods. Last week, a coalition of Google, Nvidia and startup Emerald AI partnered to back data centers that can flex their power demand.

Yes, but: "The way to provide people relief at the utility level on their monthly bills is to build as much clean energy as possible," said Schatz, who represents a heavily petroleum-dependent state.

• Schatz and other senators have legislation to contend with rapid AI deployment and prevent data centers from increasing power costs. However, he said, the AI alarm is bigger than clean energy or water use — it's "an existential question" impacting people's livelihoods.
• He said CEOs tout AI even as they warn it could gut employment, then wonder why workers aren't embracing it.
• "Best-case scenario, we eviscerate employment. Why aren't you glad you have this? We're going to use solar energy," Schatz said of CEOs' positioning.

The intrigue: While the recent climate focus has been on data centers' impact, the movement has been slow to address the climate impact from animal agriculture, said Support+Feed's Baird. She said there's resistance to "reality-based, science-based action" on agriculture as a climate strategy.

• Baird said she saw signs reading "End fossil fuels," and when asked if people should be encouraged to eat fewer animal products, the sign-holders responded with, "I don't want to tell people what to eat."
• "The one that we have the most power to change is food, and yet we talk about it the least," she said. "What doesn't give me hope is going to climate conferences and having steak on the menu."

Zoom out: Baird said that while personal responsibility matters, government policy on plant-based food and its climate impact can more quickly drive change.

Go deeper: Watch the full event.