Green groups embrace AI even as they warn of data centre costs (opens the source in a new tab)
- Reuters asked 15 major environmental and conservation groups about AI. All use it, for climate data, fire alerts and wildlife counts, and all worry about the power and water data centres consume.
- Save the Elephants says AI reviews survey images in hours that took nine people nine months, and showed human counts missed about a third of elephants. The Jane Goodall Institute cut a 13 to 15 year notes project to about two.
- Some limit the footprint: WRI caches answers and The Nature Conservancy processes fishing video on board. Greenpeace questions the buildout itself.
- 945 TWh
- Data centre power use a year by 2030 (IEA estimate)
- 1 in 3
- Elephants missed by human surveys
Why it matters Groups that criticise the AI buildout are also its customers, which weakens their case unless they can show the trade pays off. Their careful habits, such as caching and processing on the device, are a template others could copy.
Watch next COP31 this month, where host Turkey will seek a pledge on sustainable AI. Even so, savings from careful use by charities are tiny next to a buildout driven by tech giants, so the real question sits elsewhere.
Source:Reuters (free to read) ↗