Tech companies and their climate pledges. The 2024 AI edition.

I’ve been closely following the climate commitments and reduction targets by the tech sector for years now—I was even cautiously optimistic for a brief moment last year. Not now.

The latest environmental reports from Alibaba, Google, Microsoft and co. are disconcerting. Meta hasn’t even released last year’s data. Overall: Emissions are going up, rather than down. The reason? Artificial Intelligence.

Whether there is an actual problem that can be solved with AI applications or not, the promise is that the ‘magic’ will make everything better (and shareholders happier). What the data shows is something else: The environmental impact of AI itself cannot be kept in line with necessary reduction targets. The AI-fication of everything is presented as a solution — in search of a problem.

Full post.