A Call for Action to Stop Polluting the Planet and Implications for Electricity Prices in the United States: Nvidia, Microsoft, the DOE, and the U.S.

In its conclusion, Nvidia said it looks forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond.

The new rules aim to close any loopholes that might allow countries like China and Russia to gain access to or develop their own artificial intelligence technology. The Biden administration wants to keep transformational AI development under the control of the US and 18 of its allies, which include the UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. All other countries will be subject to caps that restrict AI chip imports.

Developing new AI tools is an increasingly energy-hungry endeavor. Nevertheless, the Biden administration seems to think it’s worth the risk of further derailing US climate goals and putting additional pressure on already stressed power grids.

New data center rules aim to keep the development of the most advanced AI models within the borders of the United States and its partners. According to the New York Times, Microsoft says it could comply fully with this rule’s high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us.

The DOD and DOE are directed to lease federal sites to private companies constructing data centers and clean power facilities. It also tells federal agencies to “prioritize” and speed up permitting of AI infrastructure. It is possible that the measure will speed up environmental review under the National Environmental Protection Act.

In a letter to you, a group of senators called for you to reconsider any potential executive action that could lead to increased pollution and costs for consumers. “We are the United States of America; there is no doubt that we can win the AI race while accelerating our decarbonization efforts,” it reads.

The rise in demand is the result of the amount of compute power needed to train models. Utilities are already extending the lives of polluting coal and gas infrastructure to try to meet skyrocketing electricity demand. Electricity bills rise as a result.

Developers building new AI data centers on federal land will be required “to pay all costs of building and operating AI infrastructure so that this development does not raise electricity prices for consumers,” according to the White House.

Johanna Neumann, a senior director at the Environment America Research & Policy Center said in a December 19th statement that the real race to stop the pollution that is warming our planet and harming our health is not in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.