A computer scientist says artificial intelligence itself could drive advances that compensate for the high energy needs of the technology.
A report out this week from the United Nations University says AI could be consuming three percent of the world's electricity by 2030.
University of Auckland's Dr Ulrich Speidel said AI allows a large amount of data to be crunched, and that could help with making the technologies used for generating and storing electricity more efficient.
Speidel said there are two technologies, in particular, where inroads could be made with the help of AI.
One is improving the efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells. He said currently, about a quarter of the energy that hit a solar panel from the sun was converted into electricity.
"Obviously, if we could bring that percentage up, then existing areas used for solar farms with new types of panels could generate a lot more electricity compared to what they were able to generate beforehand."
AI could also help with making gains in future battery technologies, where research is ongoing, he said.
"I could well see that artificial intelligence might actually be accelerating that by allowing people to go through more possible combinations of battery chemistry without actually having to build batteries."
Another aspect where AI's energy footprint could be improved is the amount of power consumed by artificial intelligence systems themselves, he said.
"If you've got access to a tool like AI, that's actually able to crunch a large amount of numbers and able to go through a lot of potential technologies and the potential ways of making semiconductors more efficient, then again, that should accelerate hopefully the development of semiconductor technology."
That could mean chips being used in a decade's time would be using a fraction of the energy they now used, Speidel said.
"So there could be another sort of efficiency gain where maybe that huge footprint that we're seeing at the moment could be mitigated."
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