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by danpalmer 848 days ago
Data center infrastructure is a relatively small component of global emissions. I believe "compute" is something like <2% of global emissions, whereas construction is double digits, travel is double digits, etc. AI might increase this, maybe substantially, but it's unlikely to 10x it overall, as "traditional" compute is going to be dominant for a long time to come still.

Add to this the fact that companies in this space tend to be significantly better than average on carbon emissions commitments. I'm biased as a Googler, but the fact Google is entirely carbon neutral is one of the reasons I'm here. This is done mostly through buying green energy I believe, so our AI stuff is in a pretty good place in this respect, in my opinion.

I think it's reasonable to be a little concerned, but overall I don't think AI is going to be a significant contributor to the climate crisis, and actually has the potential to help in reducing carbon emissions or atmospheric warming in other ways.
2 comments
abdullahkhalids 848 days ago
If Google is largely buying carbon offset contracts, it's likely not carbon neutral. Most of them are junk and don't actually end up doing what they promise. Convince your employer to plant trees itself.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37660256

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danpalmer 847 days ago
Yeah I'm fully aware of carbon offset fraud. I believe much of the carbon neutrality comes from buying actual clean energy – something that is much clearer cut as a good thing. I believe there is a component of carbon offsetting, but the fraud risk and general quality of carbon offsets is something the company seems acutely aware of, and seems to put a lot of effort into not falling into the traps.

Google has been doing this since well before it was cool. It's not some attempt to green-wash an image, it's deeply ingrained in the company in my experience and there's a lot of effort to do it right.

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BodyCulture 847 days ago
„Carbon neutral“ is a meaningless propaganda term. We need to stop as much CO2 emissions as possible now. Buying things / papers and even planting trees does not undo your carbon emissions in a magical way.
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danpalmer 847 days ago
Buying clean energy to run your datacenters does however have a huge impact on this, and as far as I understand it, that's where much of the current solution is.
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