AI is a double-edged sword for climate change

Workers work at Europe’s largest data centre of TikTok, a social media firm owned by China-headquartered Bytedance, in Hamar, Norway. Data centres around the world currently comprise about 1% to 1.5% of global electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency. — Reuters

Tech companies have pitched artificial intelligence as a powerful tool to address climate change, but first they may need to stop AI from making the problem even worse.

“It is absolutely true that AI is an energy-intensive technology,” said Sims Witherspoon, climate action lead at Google DeepMind. “Until we have a grid that is run completely on clean energy, those technologies will have a carbon footprint.”