Across economies and industries, AI can contribute enormously to achieving net zero targets. For instance, it can help utilities allocate resources more efficiently; reduce energy wastage in hard-to-green transportation industries such as shipping; and optimise irrigation in agriculture. But just as it could be a boon as business and industry take steps to lower their carbon footprints, there is a potential downside.
Developing and deploying this technology is resource-intensive, contributing to carbon emissions regardless of how it is used. Large amounts of electricity and freshwater are used in the development and deployment of AI models, not least to cool servers in data centres.
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