Technology Magazine September 2024 | Page 7

FOREWORD Solving the Sustainable AI Paradox

Tech leaders today must navigating AI ’ s dual role : balancing its energy-intensive nature with its potential to revolutionise sustainability initiatives

“ The tech industry now faces a critical challenge – how to harness the transformative power of AI while ensuring its development and deployment align with global sustainability goals ”

As AI systems grow increasingly sophisticated , a pressing concern has emerged : the environmental impact of these powerful technologies . The tech industry now faces a critical challenge – how to harness the transformative power of AI while ensuring its development and deployment align with global sustainability goals . At the heart of this challenge lies something of an AI sustainability paradox . On one hand , the computational demands of AI contribute significantly to energy consumption and carbon emissions . Training LLMs and running complex AI systems require vast amounts of processing power , often sourced from data centres with substantial carbon footprints .

On the other hand , AI offers unprecedented capabilities to optimise resource management , predict and mitigate environmental risks and drive efficiencies across various sectors , potentially leading to a reduction in overall environmental impact .
This paradox is at the heart of Technology Magazine this month , where we hear from experts in the space about the business case for sustainable AI . Elsewhere , he highlight IaaS cloud models and showcase the Top 10 sustainable tech companies . Enjoy this issue .
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