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Are Companies’ A.I. Ambitions on a Collision Course With Their Sustainability Goals?

Beneath A.I.’s efficiency gains lies a resource footprint companies are only starting to confront.

For a while, A.I. enjoyed the rare privilege of being sold as everything all at once: a productivity tool, a growth story, a labor-saving device and, by implication, a cleaner, smarter way of running a business. It was the corporate miracle diet. It helped cut costs, increase output, automate the boring bits and, somehow, remain comfortably on track for net zero. 

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Miracles, however, tend to look more expensive when the electricity bill arrives. As the power demands of A.I. infrastructure become harder to ignore, an awkward reality is moving from the margins into the boardroom: the economics of A.I. and the politics of sustainability are no longer neatly aligned.

That tension is now visible in plain numbers. Google’s latest environmental reporting showed greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) up 48 percent against its 2019 base year, driven in part by data center energy use and supply chain growth linked to its A.I. expansion. Microsoft reported total GHG Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions were up 29.1 percent against its 2020 baseline, with much of the increase due to the infrastructure build required for new A.I.........

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