AI's Carbon Footprint: A Hidden Threat

Even as humanity eagerly embraces artificial intelligence despite misgivings on the academic and security fronts, AI’s hunger for energy and its carbon footprint are causing increasing concern. AI is often compared with fossil fuel. Oil, once mined and refined, is a lucrative commodity; and like oil, AI has a large environmental impact that has surprised many.
An article in the MIT Technology Review says the life cycle for training common large AI models has a significant environmental impact, reporting that “the entire process can emit more than 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent—nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average American car (and that includes the manufacture of the car itself).”