The AI Conundrum: Green Energy Hero Or Carbon Culprit?

Artificial Intelligence presents a catch-22 for the renewable energy industry. Meeting decarbonization goals in time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change will require an unprecedented amount of coordination between economic sectors in record time, which will be nearly impossible to carry out smoothly without machine learning.

However, as the uptake of artificial intelligence expands, so too does its already enormous carbon footprint, raising the question of whether the use of AI in the decarbonization movement is essential or counterproductive. …