The tech giants both report surges in greenhouse gas emissions as they double-down on adding artificial intelligence to all of their products.
Google Vice President Majd Bakar speaks on-stage during an annual conference in San Francisco with the back drop of a massive data center.“One query to ChatGPT uses approximately as much electricity as could light one light bulb for about 20 minutes,” he says. “So, you can imagine with millions of people using something like that every day, that adds up to a really large amount of electricity.”
But, starting in 2023, Google wrote in its sustainability report that it was no longer"maintaining operational carbon neutrality." The company says it's still pushing for its net-zero goal in 2030. “The infrastructure and electricity needed for these technologies create new challenges for meeting sustainability commitments across the tech sector,” the report reads.AI requires computer power from thousands of servers that are housed in data centers; and those data centers need massive amounts of electricity to meet that demand.
“There's a whole material infrastructure that needs to be built to support AI,” says Alex Hanna, the director of research for Distributed AI Research Institute. She worked on Google’s Ethical AI team, but left the company in 2022 over the handling of a research paper that highlighted the environmental costs of AI.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
AI brings soaring emissions for Google and Microsoft, a major contributor to climate changeThe tech giants both report surges in greenhouse gas emissions as they double-down on adding artificial intelligence to all of their products.
Read more »
Replace your Microsoft 365 subscription with a $50 Microsoft Office lifetime licenseMicrosoft Office 2021 is the low-cost alternative to Microsoft 365, and you'll get lifetime access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and more for only $49.97 until June 26.
Read more »
Replace your Microsoft 365 subscription with a $50 Microsoft Office lifetime licenseMicrosoft Office 2021 is the low-cost alternative to Microsoft 365, and you'll get lifetime access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and more for only $49.97 until June 26.
Read more »
Replace your Microsoft 365 subscription with a $50 Microsoft Office lifetime licenseMicrosoft Office 2021 is the low-cost alternative to Microsoft 365, and you'll get lifetime access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and more for only $49.97 until June 26.
Read more »
European Union's competition boss signals fresh AI scrutiny for Microsoft-OpenAI deal and GoogleThe European Union is escalating its scrutiny of the artificial intelligence industry, including taking a fresh look into Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI
Read more »
European Union's competition boss signals fresh AI scrutiny for Microsoft-OpenAI deal and GoogleThe European Union is escalating its scrutiny of the artificial intelligence industry, including taking a fresh look into Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI.
Read more »