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AI is 'accelerating the climate crisis,' expert warns
If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology. Recognised as one of the 100 most influential people in the world of AI by the American magazine Time in 2024, the Canadian computer scientist of Russian origin has sought for several years to quantify the emissions of programmes like ChatGPT or Midjourney. "I find it particularly disappointing that generative AI is used to search the Internet," laments the researcher, who spoke with AFP on the sidelines of the ALL IN artificial intelligence conference, in Montreal. The language models on which the programmes are based require enormous computing capacities to train on billions of data points, necessitating powerful servers. Then there's the energy used to respond to each individual user's requests. Instead of simply extracting information, "like a search engine would do to find the capital of a country, for example," AI programs "generate new information," making the whole thing "much more energy-intensive," she explains. According to the International Energy Agency, the combined AI and the cryptocurrency sectors consumed nearly 460 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022 -- two percent of total global production. A leading researcher on the impact of AI on climate, Luccioni participated in 2020 in the creation of a tool for developers to quantify the carbon footprint of running a piece of code. "CodeCarbon" has since been downloaded more than a million times. Head of the climate strategy of startup Hugging Face, a platform for sharing open-access AI models, she is now working on creating a certification system for algorithms. Similar to the program from the US Environmental Protection Agency that awards scores based on the energy consumption of electronic devices and appliances, it would make it possible to know an AI product's energy consumption in order to encourage users and developers to "make better decisions." "We don't take into account water or rare materials," she acknowledges, "but at least we know that for a specific task, we can measure energy efficiency and say that this model has an A+, and that model has a D," she says. In order to develop her tool, Luccioni is experimenting with it on generative AI models that are accessible to everyone, or open source, but she would also like to do it on commercial models from Google or ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, which have been reluctant to agree.
[2]
AI Is 'Accelerating The Climate Crisis,' Expert Warns
If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology. Recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in the world of AI by the American magazine Time in 2024, the Canadian computer scientist of Russian origin has sought for several years to quantify the emissions of programs like ChatGPT or Midjourney. "I find it particularly disappointing that generative AI is used to search the Internet," laments the researcher, who spoke with AFP on the sidelines of the ALL IN artificial intelligence conference, in Montreal. The language models on which the programs are based require enormous computing capacities to train on billions of data points, necessitating powerful servers. Then there's the energy used to respond to each individual user's requests. Instead of simply extracting information, "like a search engine would do to find the capital of a country, for example," AI programs "generate new information," making the whole thing "much more energy-intensive," she explains. According to the International Energy Agency, the combined AI and the cryptocurrency sectors consumed nearly 460 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022 -- two percent of total global production. A leading researcher on the impact of AI on climate, Luccioni participated in 2020 in the creation of a tool for developers to quantify the carbon footprint of running a piece of code. "CodeCarbon" has since been downloaded more than a million times. Head of the climate strategy of startup Hugging Face, a platform for sharing open-access AI models, she is now working on creating a certification system for algorithms. Similar to the program from the US Environmental Protection Agency that awards scores based on the energy consumption of electronic devices and appliances, it would make it possible to know an AI product's energy consumption in order to encourage users and developers to "make better decisions." "We don't take into account water or rare materials," she acknowledges, "but at least we know that for a specific task, we can measure energy efficiency and say that this model has an A+, and that model has a D," she says. In order to develop her tool, Luccioni is experimenting with it on generative AI models that are accessible to everyone, or open source, but she would also like to do it on commercial models from Google or ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, which have been reluctant to agree. Although Microsoft and Google have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, the US tech giants saw their greenhouse gas emissions soar in 2023 because of AI: up 48 percent for Google compared to 2019 and 29 percent for Microsoft compared to 2020. "We are accelerating the climate crisis," says Luccioni, calling for more transparency from tech companies. The solution, she says, could come from governments that, for the moment, are "flying blindly," without knowing what is "in the data sets or how the algorithms are trained." "Once we have transparency, we can start legislating." It is also necessary to "explain to people what generative AI can and cannot do, and at what cost," according to Luccioni. In her latest study, the researcher demonstrated that producing a high-definition image using artificial intelligence consumes as much energy as fully recharging the battery of your cell phone. At a time when more and more companies want to integrate the technology further into our lives -- with conversational bots and connected devices, or in online searches -- Luccioni advocates "energy sobriety." The idea here is not to oppose AI, she emphasizes, but rather to choose the right tools -- and use them judiciously.
[3]
AI is 'accelerating the climate crisis,' expert warns
If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology. "I find it particularly disappointing that generative AI is used to search the Internet,"on the sidelines of the ALL IN artificial intelligence conference, in Montreal.If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology. Recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in the world of AI by the American magazine Time in 2024, the Canadian computer scientist of Russian origin has sought for several years to quantify the emissions of programs like ChatGPT or Midjourney. "I find it particularly disappointing that generative AI is used to search the Internet," laments the researcher, who spoke with AFP on the sidelines of the ALL IN artificial intelligence conference, in Montreal. The language models on which the programs are based require enormous computing capacities to train on billions of data points, necessitating powerful servers. Then there's the energy used to respond to each individual user's requests. Instead of simply extracting information, "like a search engine would do to find the capital of a country, for example," AI programs "generate new information," making the whole thing "much more energy-intensive," she explains. According to the International Energy Agency, the combined AI and the cryptocurrency sectors consumed nearly 460 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022 -- two percent of total global production. Energy efficiency A leading researcher on the impact of AI on climate, Luccioni participated in 2020 in the creation of a tool for developers to quantify the carbon footprint of running a piece of code. "CodeCarbon" has since been downloaded more than a million times. Head of the climate strategy of startup Hugging Face, a platform for sharing open-access AI models, she is now working on creating a certification system for algorithms. Similar to the program from the US Environmental Protection Agency that awards scores based on the energy consumption of electronic devices and appliances, it would make it possible to know an AI product's energy consumption in order to encourage users and developers to "make better decisions." "We don't take into account water or rare materials," she acknowledges, "but at least we know that for a specific task, we can measure energy efficiency and say that this model has an A+, and that model has a D," she says. Transparency In order to develop her tool, Luccioni is experimenting with it on generative AI models that are accessible to everyone, or open source, but she would also like to do it on commercial models from Google or ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, which have been reluctant to agree. Although Microsoft and Google have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, the US tech giants saw their greenhouse gas emissions soar in 2023 because of AI: up 48 percent for Google compared to 2019 and 29 percent for Microsoft compared to 2020. "We are accelerating the climate crisis," says Luccioni, calling for more transparency from tech companies. The solution, she says, could come from governments that, for the moment, are "flying blindly," without knowing what is "in the data sets or how the algorithms are trained." "Once we have transparency, we can start legislating." 'Energy sobriety' It is also necessary to "explain to people what generative AI can and cannot do, and at what cost," according to Luccioni. In her latest study, the researcher demonstrated that producing a high-definition image using artificial intelligence consumes as much energy as fully recharging the battery of your cell phone. At a time when more and more companies want to integrate the technology further into our lives -- with conversational bots and connected devices, or in online searches -- Luccioni advocates "energy sobriety." The idea here is not to oppose AI, she emphasizes, but rather to choose the right tools -- and use them judiciously.
[4]
AI is 'accelerating the climate crisis,' expert warns
Montreal (AFP) - If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology. Recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in the world of AI by the American magazine Time in 2024, the Canadian computer scientist of Russian origin has sought for several years to quantify the emissions of programs like ChatGPT or Midjourney. "I find it particularly disappointing that generative AI is used to search the Internet," laments the researcher, who spoke with AFP on the sidelines of the ALL IN artificial intelligence conference, in Montreal. The language models on which the programs are based require enormous computing capacities to train on billions of data points, necessitating powerful servers. Then there's the energy used to respond to each individual user's requests. Instead of simply extracting information, "like a search engine would do to find the capital of a country, for example," AI programs "generate new information," making the whole thing "much more energy-intensive," she explains. According to the International Energy Agency, the combined AI and the cryptocurrency sectors consumed nearly 460 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022 -- two percent of total global production. Energy efficiency A leading researcher on the impact of AI on climate, Luccioni participated in 2020 in the creation of a tool for developers to quantify the carbon footprint of running a piece of code. "CodeCarbon" has since been downloaded more than a million times. Head of the climate strategy of startup Hugging Face, a platform for sharing open-access AI models, she is now working on creating a certification system for algorithms. Similar to the program from the US Environmental Protection Agency that awards scores based on the energy consumption of electronic devices and appliances, it would make it possible to know an AI product's energy consumption in order to encourage users and developers to "make better decisions." "We don't take into account water or rare materials," she acknowledges, "but at least we know that for a specific task, we can measure energy efficiency and say that this model has an A+, and that model has a D," she says. Transparency In order to develop her tool, Luccioni is experimenting with it on generative AI models that are accessible to everyone, or open source, but she would also like to do it on commercial models from Google or ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, which have been reluctant to agree. Although Microsoft and Google have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, the US tech giants saw their greenhouse gas emissions soar in 2023 because of AI: up 48 percent for Google compared to 2019 and 29 percent for Microsoft compared to 2020. "We are accelerating the climate crisis," says Luccioni, calling for more transparency from tech companies. The solution, she says, could come from governments that, for the moment, are "flying blindly," without knowing what is "in the data sets or how the algorithms are trained." "Once we have transparency, we can start legislating." 'Energy sobriety' It is also necessary to "explain to people what generative AI can and cannot do, and at what cost," according to Luccioni. In her latest study, the researcher demonstrated that producing a high-definition image using artificial intelligence consumes as much energy as fully recharging the battery of your cell phone. At a time when more and more companies want to integrate the technology further into our lives -- with conversational bots and connected devices, or in online searches -- Luccioni advocates "energy sobriety." The idea here is not to oppose AI, she emphasizes, but rather to choose the right tools -- and use them judiciously.
[5]
AI is 'accelerating the climate crisis,' expert warns - Times of India
Researcher Sasha Luccioni highlights the significant energy consumption of generative AI compared to traditional search engines. Technologies like ChatGPT require vast computing power, contributing to higher greenhouse gas emissions. She advocates for transparency and energy efficiency in AI development, urging governments and companies to make informed decisions to mitigate the technology's environmental impact.
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Artificial Intelligence is contributing to the acceleration of the climate crisis, according to an expert's warning. The technology's energy consumption and its application in fossil fuel extraction are raising concerns about its environmental impact.
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to advance at a rapid pace, concerns are mounting about its unintended consequences on the environment. Experts are now warning that AI could be accelerating the climate crisis, a revelation that has sparked debate in both tech and environmental circles 1.
One of the primary concerns is the substantial energy consumption required to power AI systems. Large language models and other AI applications demand significant computational resources, which in turn consume vast amounts of electricity. This increased energy demand often relies on power grids that are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels 2.
Paradoxically, while AI has the potential to contribute to climate solutions, it is also being employed to enhance fossil fuel extraction processes. Oil and gas companies are leveraging AI technologies to improve the efficiency and profitability of their operations. This application of AI in the fossil fuel industry is directly contributing to increased carbon emissions 3.
Experts are urging the tech industry to prioritize the development of more energy-efficient AI systems. There is a growing consensus that the environmental impact of AI should be a key consideration in its design and deployment. Researchers are exploring ways to reduce the carbon footprint of AI, including optimizing algorithms and using renewable energy sources to power data centers 4.
The challenge lies in balancing the innovative potential of AI with environmental sustainability. While AI has shown promise in addressing climate-related issues, such as improving energy grid efficiency and climate modeling, its current trajectory raises significant concerns. The tech industry is being called upon to take responsibility for the environmental impact of its creations 5.
As the debate intensifies, there are growing calls for policy interventions to ensure that AI development aligns with climate goals. Policymakers are being urged to consider regulations that would require AI companies to assess and mitigate the environmental impact of their technologies. This could include mandates for carbon-neutral AI operations or incentives for developing climate-friendly AI solutions 1.
The intersection of AI and climate change presents both challenges and opportunities. While the current trajectory is concerning, there is hope that with conscious effort and innovation, AI can be harnessed as a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. The coming years will be crucial in determining whether the tech industry can pivot towards more sustainable practices and leverage AI's potential for environmental good 3.
Reference
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