National Academies: “Exploring How to Power AI Sustainability”
This feature story in the National Academies’ magazine summarizes an April event moderated by RFF’s Kristin Hayes.
“Even before this growth in demand … the US grid was facing challenges related to aging infrastructure, long queues for interconnection of new renewable resources, the need for new pricing structures and market designs, and more,” said Kristin Hayes, senior director for research and policy engagement at Resources for the Future, and the webinar’s moderator. “How AI presents both new challenges but also new opportunities for the power sector is at the heart of our conversation today.”
Hayes was joined by Yury Dvorkin, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Cooper Elsworth, Google's AI and Cloud workload emissions program lead, for the discussion, which focused on how artificial intelligence is driving new electricity demand, how emissions play into each stage of the life cycle of AI products and services, and what it will take to answer society’s demands for AI while also meeting greenhouse gas emissions goals needed to tackle climate change.
