The Week in Green Software: Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint
09/19/24 • 43 min
Host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain to dive into The Week in Green Software, exploring the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence and how the growing adoption of AI technology affects carbon emissions, as well as the growing complexities in the measurement and reduction of these. They discuss a primer on AI's direct environmental footprint, regulatory trends in Europe and the US, and the complexities surrounding the renewable energy credits tech companies use to offset emissions. The conversation touches on real-time cloud data initiatives, carbon accounting in AI, and the future challenges of balancing sustainability with technological innovation.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:
Asim Hussain: Three, four years ago, everybody treated all carbon offsets the same. They didn't realize there was nuance between them. Now that's changed. Everybody needs to now pay attention to the same thing in terms of renewable energy. If you do not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of ...
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:
- The Environmental Impacts of AI -- Primer | Hugging Face[03:12]
- How Tech Companies Are Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint | Bloomberg [22:25]
- AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked | Nature [32:48]
- Does the EU AI Act really call for tracking inference as well as training in AI models? | Chris Adams [12:21]
- Simon Willison on openai [14:15]
- EnergyStarAI (AI Energy Star Project) | Hugging Face [16:12]
- Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct · Hugging Face [21:28]
- Jevons paradox and greening software—why increasing efficiency makes sense | ASIM.DEV [21:51]
- Olivier Corradi [27:43]
- Real-Time Cloud | GSF [28:41]
- GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/real-time-cloud
- Reviewing the evidence we accept for Green hosting verification | Green Web Foundation [31:06]
- The Week in Green Software: Modeling Carbon Aware Software | TWiGS with Iegor Riepin [37:18]
- Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
- Follow and rate on Spotify
- Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!
- Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!
Asim Hussain: Three, four years ago, everybody treated all carbon offsets the same. They didn't realize there was nuance between them. Now that's changed. Everybody needs to now pay attention to the same thing in terms of renewable energy. If you do not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of ...
Host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain to dive into The Week in Green Software, exploring the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence and how the growing adoption of AI technology affects carbon emissions, as well as the growing complexities in the measurement and reduction of these. They discuss a primer on AI's direct environmental footprint, regulatory trends in Europe and the US, and the complexities surrounding the renewable energy credits tech companies use to offset emissions. The conversation touches on real-time cloud data initiatives, carbon accounting in AI, and the future challenges of balancing sustainability with technological innovation.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:
Asim Hussain: Three, four years ago, everybody treated all carbon offsets the same. They didn't realize there was nuance between them. Now that's changed. Everybody needs to now pay attention to the same thing in terms of renewable energy. If you do not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of ...
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:
- The Environmental Impacts of AI -- Primer | Hugging Face[03:12]
- How Tech Companies Are Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint | Bloomberg [22:25]
- AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked | Nature [32:48]
- Does the EU AI Act really call for tracking inference as well as training in AI models? | Chris Adams [12:21]
- Simon Willison on openai [14:15]
- EnergyStarAI (AI Energy Star Project) | Hugging Face [16:12]
- Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct · Hugging Face [21:28]
- Jevons paradox and greening software—why increasing efficiency makes sense | ASIM.DEV [21:51]
- Olivier Corradi [27:43]
- Real-Time Cloud | GSF [28:41]
- GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/real-time-cloud
- Reviewing the evidence we accept for Green hosting verification | Green Web Foundation [31:06]
- The Week in Green Software: Modeling Carbon Aware Software | TWiGS with Iegor Riepin [37:18]
- Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
- Follow and rate on Spotify
- Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!
- Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!
Asim Hussain: Three, four years ago, everybody treated all carbon offsets the same. They didn't realize there was nuance between them. Now that's changed. Everybody needs to now pay attention to the same thing in terms of renewable energy. If you do not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of ...
Previous Episode
Making Testbeds for Carbon Aware Computing
Host Chris Adams is joined by special guest Philipp Wiesner, a research associate and PhD student at TU Berlin, to discuss how computing systems can better align energy consumption with clean energy availability. Contributing to Project Vessim, Philipp explains how researchers are now able to model different energy consumption scenarios, from solar and wind power integration to the complexities of modern grids despite the scarcity of available testing environments. They discuss federated learning and its role in carbon-aware designs, along with challenges in tracking real energy savings. Tune in to learn about the future of carbon-aware computing and the tools being developed to help software become more sustainable.
Learn more about our people:
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- Vessim | GitHub [24:02]
- FedZero | GitHub
- Let's Wait Awhile | GitHub
- Kepler [26:08]
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Next Episode
Electricity Maps
Host Chris Adams sits down with CEO Olivier Corradi and Tech Lead Íngrid Munné Collado of Electricity Maps, a company that leverages data to enable decarbonization of electricity grids. They discuss the complexities of carbon intensity data, the role of accurate forecasting in renewable energy, and how this data helps optimize electricity usage for sustainability. Olivier explains the origins of Electricity Maps, their goal of providing real-time carbon footprint insights, and their theory of change—targeting citizens, corporations, and institutions to create a greener future. Tune in to hear about the history, frontiers, and future of this engaging field.
Learn more about our people:
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- Olivier Corradi: LinkedIn | Website | X
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