The carbon footprint of AI at the heart of a French bill

Report After reportthe observation is the same. Artificial intelligence is very greedy in energy, data and materials and this results in a carbon footprint that continues to grow. Anxious not to leave the ecological concern aside in this debate, a socialist senator seeks to supervise the development of data centers on the territory.

Davis Ros, senator of Essonne, therefore offers “to support this digital transition“Via a bill taking into account all environmental imperatives, reveals the media context.

Soil artificialization, water pollution and electrical stress

Arguing that data centers “make people of nuisance people weigh on the communities and populations that can be considerable“, This draft bill aspires to better distribute and better use these servers farms in the territory.

If the text recognizes that the data centers “are essential for digital sovereignty and the digital economy, […] The exponential development of calculation capacities and data storage, accelerated by the emergence of artificial intelligence […] accentuated demand for ever more powerful infrastructure“, regrets Davis Ros.

However, this mania to build servers at all costs causes many problems locally: “Floor artificialization, pressure on available land, not reused fatal heat, consumption and water pollution in large quantities and many voltages on electrical distribution networks“Grabs the text.

Little impact on employment

Stress watercolor And electric That these machines impose on infrastructure is already known around the world. However, in France, these data centers are very unevenly distributed. Île-de-France has between 160 and 170 for a hundred everywhere else in the territory. In order not to make sure, it is the poorest territories that concentrate the most (in Seine-Saint-Denis in particular) and “their impact on employment remains relatively low with regard to the colossal investments that they require“Note the bill.

In addition to giving more power to local elected officials to supervise the appearance of these concrete and silicon monsters, the text proposes to establish a “water royalty“Consumed by these infrastructures and imagines new obligations weighing on businesses to force them to present”A project to reuse and enhance fatal heat“produced by the servers.

The text is still in a completely preliminary phase and should not arrive on the assembly benches for a few good weeks.