Featuring:
Thomas Husson, Vice President and Principal Analyst
Show Notes:
The prevalence of AI and generative AI (genAI) has given rise to a critical question: Are AI’s negative impacts on the environment outweighing its benefits? It’s a complex question, and Vice President and Principal Analyst Thomas Husson joins the podcast to discuss the various sides of this issues.
Husson starts the discussion by emphasizing that we shouldn’t think of any specific technology as “good” nor “bad” for the environment but rather consider the impacts of specific use cases for the technology. He references the title of a 2022 Forrester report — “Jekyll And Hyde: The Dual Role Of Emerging Tech In Environmental Sustainability” — to make the point.
From there, the conversation turns to the negative impacts of AI on the environment, particularly the increase in electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions due to the growth of genAI. Husson points out the greenhouse gas emissions data from Microsoft and Google as an indication that AI is having a large environmental impact, due mostly to the construction of data centers hosting AI and cloud computing systems. And that impact will increase as genAI finds more use cases and applications. The conversation also touches on the impact data centers have on water resources as well as the impact of increased hardware production needed to support AI’s growth.
But Husson is also quick to highlight the positive role AI can play in improving sustainability and tackling climate challenges. He points out various use cases, including using AI to assess climate risks, limit deforestation, predict and combat wildfires, and provide early flood warnings.
The discussion eventually turns to measurement and the importance of integrating sustainability data into core business operations to measure the full scope of activities. Both cloud providers and data centers can play a role, Husson says, in helping organizations align their objectives and collaborate across functions to achieve sustainability goals. The episode closes with Husson emphasizing that the responsibility for AI’s environmental impact lies not only on the technology function but on the business as a whole, making collaboration vital.
