The problem is larger than that. Not that I have some exceptional overall perspective on this all but here's an eclectic mix of things I've come across: Data centers' energy consumption is set to double in fife years, from a level that is already high (already comparable to nation states). There are - it must be recognized - significant uncertainties to this, for example algorithm and processor developments could suddenly plunge energy demands (DeepSeek is a good example about a market shock in this regard though it proved to be a somewhat false dawn in terms of resource-thrifty AI) but this is by no means a given.
Large tech companies' oligarchs, broligarchs and (largely authoritarian) world leaders are placing large bets in AI (self-)evolving into a state that would consolidate their own power and/or have quasi religious beliefs about singularities or (becoming) some sort of artificial gods, even. These trends have been said to be loosely organized around "TESCREAL" (Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalist ideology, Effective altruism, Longtermism), the self-described practitioners of which range from true believers to cynics justifying their current misuses of power (environmental destruction, human rights abuses, totalitarianism) with "superior future benefits".
Of course it's also a question of pure greed and a "classic" land rush, to corner the market (limited energy, limited hardware, etc. even in a truly global context), to go headlong into something that is poorly understood in true "move fast and break things" fashion. Competitive data scraping is bound to be one tangible aspect of all this. I've also already referred to so-called "LLM grooming" here, the flooding the internet with huge amounts of content not for human interaction but with the explicit malevolent intent to distort AI models in, say, totalitarian leaders' favor.
https://www.iea.org/news/ai-is-set-...tial-to-transform-how-the-energy-sector-works
