// NATURE NEWS — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Why scientists should lead the shift away from AI mega data centres
Cassidy K. Buhler is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the Environmental Data Science Innovation and Impact Lab (ESIIL) at the University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado.
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Fernando Pérez is faculty co-director of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment and associate professor at the Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.
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Carl Boettiger is faculty advisor at the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science & Environment and associate professor at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.
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Activists in San Marcos, Texas, protested against proposed data centres that would power artificial-intelligence systems.Credit: Sara Diggins/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty
As public opposition grows against the soaring energy and water demands of data centres powering the artificial-intelligence boom, some technology companies are talking about putting these facilities in space. For instance, businessman Elon Musk’s AI and rocket firm, SpaceX, is one of a handful of companies planning to deploy constellations of satellites in low-Earth orbit that act as data centres.
The logic is seductive: such facilities could tap abundant solar energy and avoid opposition from communities. But the premise that massive data centres are a prerequisite for enabling AI-driven scientific advances is incorrect. The infrastructural needs of science are fundamentally different from those of consumer AI platforms built to serve millions of users. Researchers with the necessary technical know-how should champion an alternative vision: one centred on open-weight AI models — those with publicly available parameters — that can be deployed locally while prioritizing the efficient use of computing resources. Such an approach would make the use of AI tools more sustainable and better aligned with public interest.
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