Why the climate promises of AI sound a lot like carbon offsets
1 min read
Summary
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said in a new report that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by as much as those which will be increased by the surge in energy-hungry data centre development.
AI has the potential to reduce emissions through discoveries such as more efficient power plants and identifying methane leaks in oil and gas infrastructure.
However, the report also said that AI would increase emissions in the short term, as the surge in demand from data centres is met by building new gas plants.
The IEA estimates that widespread AI adoption could cut emissions by 1.4 billion tons in 2035, but this requires “huge uncertainty” and would depend on technical advances.