E-waste from AI Could Equal 10 Billion iPhones Annually by 2030
- Computational requirements for AI are growing very fast
- This will provoke the discarding of aging electronics
- At the end of 2023, “e-waste” was 2.6 thousand tons.
- It is expected to be 0.4-2.5 million tons for 2030.
- However, the figure for 2023 may be grossly underestimated.
- There are several ways to mitigate such effects
- You can recycle obsolete servers, etc.
- Communication and power supplies can be reused
- Measures can reduce the burden on nature by 16-86%.
- Currently, only 10% of H100 chips get a second life.
- Chips can be donated to universities, etc.