But a lot of these claims, it turns out, have very little—if any—actual proof behind them.
Joshi has written a new study, which was released with support by several environmental organisations, and aims to quantify many of the high-profile statements made in the media about AI’s potential for saving the planet. The report Looks at 150 claims about energy efficiency made by technology companies, associations of energy, and other groups. “AI will serve as a net climate benefit.” Joshi’s study found that only a quarter were supported by academic research and more than one-third did not provide any public evidence.
“People make assertions about the kind of societal impacts of AI and the effects on the energy system—those assertions often lack rigor,” Jon Koomey is an energy and technologies researcher, who wasn’t involved with Joshi report. “It’s important not to take self-interested claims at face value. Some of those claims may be true, but you have to be very careful. I think there’s a lot of people who make these statements without much support.”
What is the impact of climate change on our society? You can also find out more about the kind of person you are by clicking here. When tech companies talk about AI saving our planet, they are referring to AI. Many types of AI are less energy-intensive than the generative, consumer-focused models that have dominated headlines in recent years, which require massive amounts of compute—and power—to train and operate. For decades, Machine Learning has been an integral part of many scientific disciplines. But it’s large-scale generative AI—especially tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini—that are the public focus of much of tech companies’ infrastructure build-out. Joshi’s study found that most of the claims Joshi examined confused more traditional and less energy-intensive AI forms with the consumer-focused, generative AI driving the majority of data center build-out.
David Rolnick is the assistant professor of Computer Science at McGill University. He also chairs Climate Change AI – a nonprofit organization that uses machine learning in order to solve climate issues. Joshi was more interested in the source of the data that Big Tech used to prove the impact AI has on climate. Rolnick, however, is less worried about this, as it can be difficult for companies to demonstrate quantitatively the impact. Rolnick says that this debate is about the types of AI technologies companies claim to be essential.
“My problem with claims being made by big tech companies around AI and climate change is not that they’re not fully quantified, but that they’re relying on hypothetical AI that does not exist now, in some cases,” He says. “I think the amount of speculation on what might happen in the future with generative AI is grotesque.”
Rolnick points to the fact that, in addition to techniques that increase grid efficiency, models can also help to discover new species. Deep learning is being implemented in various sectors all over the world to reduce emissions and combat climate change. “That’s different, however, from ‘At some point in the future, this might be useful,” He says. What’s more, “there is a mismatch between the technology that is being worked on by big tech companies and the technologies that are actually powering the benefits that they claim to espouse.” Some companies may tout examples of algorithms that, for instance, help better detect floods, using them as examples of AI for good to advertise for their large language models—despite the fact that the algorithms helping with flood prediction are not the same type of AI as a consumer-facing chatbot.
