Technology

(…) There’s something familiar about the suggestion that it’s okay to build data centers that run on fossil fuels today because AI tools will help the world drive down emissions eventually. It recalls the purported promise of carbon credits: that it’s fine for a company to carry on polluting at its headquarters or plants, so long as it’s also funding, say, the planting of trees that will suck up a commensurate level of carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen again and again that such programs often overstate any climate benefits, doing little to alter the balance of what’s going into or coming out of the atmosphere.  

But in the case of what we might call “AI offsets,” the potential to overstate the gains may be greater, because the promised benefits wouldn’t meaningfully accrue for years or decades. Plus, there’s no market or regulatory mechanism to hold the industry accountable if it ends up building huge data centers that drive up emissions but never delivers on these climate claims. 

The IEA report outlines instances where industries are already using AI in ways that could help drive down emissions, including detecting methane leaks in oil and gas infrastructure, making power plants and manufacturing facilities more efficient, and reducing energy consumption in buildings.