3 July 2024 AI gets battered by its carbon footprint.
Apparently AI has doubled googles carbon footprint. I have decided to write this without looking at the articles (News Story) so I can give my own thoughts on this as a scientist. It is all really just about balancing things. Back in the day when I used to be quite successful at winning carbon capture grants, it was all about really writing a convincing argument. Personally, I suspect my funded applications would be off mark too, as to take a real picture requires a lot of data in reality.
I think what can be said is the AI itself taken in isolation from everything else will have increased the use of energy and carbon footprint. However, this is not the full story. You need to look at what the outputs of the AI have influenced. Has 10 minutes AI power actually decreased time and power use for something else ?
So in simple terms
Original Carbon Footprint (OCF) = (Power / unit time) x Time(1)
New Carbon Footprint (NCF) = Google AI + (Power / unit time) x Time(2)
where Time(1) >> Time(2)
Change in carbon footprint = OCF - NCF
if positive then there is an improvement in carbon footprint
Over simplistic probably, but does demonstrate the need to think about everything.
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