The "AI Telco energy savings" paradox AI for Telcos offers amazing efficiencies, such as potentially slicing up to 10%-20 off base station energy consumption. On the other hand, it feeds an ever-growing beast—AI data centers—projected to devour a staggering 25% of US energy by 2030. It's much like turning off the lights to save electricity, only to power a small town with your backyard carnival every night. AI effectiveness in optimizing networks is unmatched, but we must also confront the shadow it cast: a voracious energy appetite that could undermine Telco sustainability goals. https://lnkd.in/gydmwaFy
the application which uses AI for energy savings in telcos does not have to use LLMs. This article has mixed up many non related areas . we must also remember that not everything in the world needs Gen AI. Software products that reduce telco power consumption using AI were launched a few years before Gen AI stormed into the scene. These were working quite well without it. there is no need to think that anything that uses AI needs LLMs.
There are similar debates in the market of electric vehicles. While an EV doesn't pollute, the footprint to get it moving might show a negative result. A genuine call to action would be to start thinking of carbon footprint the same way we think about total cost of ownership. Until that point, projects objectives and ESG goals of companies might intersect too late in time.
Programm Director/Deputy CTO
1moI think it’s not a paradox. There is no a contradiction between energy savings for base stations and energy consumptions for data centers. They are playing on different fields.