How to Make Artificial Intelligence More Environmentally Sustainable

Amongst his recommendations: use pre-built and smaller models, run compute where low-carbon electricity is abundant, and train on renewable energy. Humble quoted the International Energy Agency (IEA), which has stated that the combined electricity use from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta has more than doubled between 2017 and 2021, rising to around 72 terawatt-hours in 2021. Microsoft's 2024 environmental report mentioned that its total carbon emissions have risen 30% since 2020, primarily due to the construction of data centers to meet demand for AI.

Google's emissions had surged about 50% since 2019 and 13% year on year in 2023 alone, according to their own reporting, largely driven by artificial intelligence. The emission that these reports talk about is mainly carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Earlier coverage

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