Microsoft: with its ambitions in AI, the American giant will have difficulty achieving carbon neutrality in 2030. This is why

The American giant wanted to be a completely green economic player by the end of the decade. But that was before the arrival of technology ChatGPT !

The firm founded by Bill Gates has always been aware of its environmental impact. And it is for this reason that in 2020 it was necessary to achieve at least carbon neutrality by 2030, or even to become “carbon negative”. A concept which indicated that the company ultimately wanted to capture more CO2 through various technologies than it emitted. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence has since arrived. An extremely energy-consuming technology, which reduces these great aspirations to nothing.

Microsoft pollutes more than before because of AI

In 2020, Microsoft planned to end its impact on global greenhouse gas emissions 10 years later. In 2023, the situation changed, since between these two dates, emissions of these same gases by the American giant increased by 30%. So, hypocrisy? Not necessarily, because at the time, no one imagined that the explosion of artificial intelligence would happen so quickly.

However, this technology has the characteristic of being extremely energy consuming, particularly due to the data centers used to train the AI, a particularity highlighted by all players in the sector, from Sam Altman to Elon Musk. And as this sudden increase in energy needs is very far from being able to be covered by renewable energies alone, traditional means of energy production must be used. Hence the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

A goal that has become unattainable

However, Microsoft does not want to sit idly by this problem. The company has multiplied agreements to try to increase the share of carbon-free energies in its consumption, whether through a gigantic plan of up to 17 billion euros of investment, or the development of its activity in countries like France and its large nuclear fleet.

The fact remains that the objective of carbon neutrality seems to have become completely unattainable in the age of AI. Last year, Microsoft alone emitted 15,357 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is comparable to the toll of entire nations like Haiti or Brunei. For manager Brad Smith, interviewed by Bloomberg, with the emergence of AI, the difficulty of achieving the objectives announced in 2020 has increased fivefold. It must be said that Microsoft intends to increase the number of its data centers this year and the following years to develop in AI. So, goodbye to ecological ambition?

Source : The Verge