In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by colleagues James Camilleri and Hélène Sauvé to explore the complex topic of AI sustainability. It's a conversation that spans the environmental impact of AI, from carbon emissions to water usage, and examines whether the industry narrative matches reality. They delve into the trade-offs between energy and water, the role of lifecycle analysis, and how approaches such as federated learning and smaller models could help. They also ask whether "green AI" is more than marketing hype, and what practical steps organisations can take to make AI genuinely sustainable.

Useful links for this episode

Technology Carbon Standard – Open-sourced by Scott Logic
Balancing AI Innovation and Sustainability: Our presentation at HM Treasury ID25 – Oliver Cronk
Greener AI - what matters, what helps, and what we still do not know – James Camilleri
Introducing AI-related emissions into the Technology Carbon Standard – Hélène Sauvé
Mapping the carbon footprint of digital content – Hélène Sauvé
Sustainability in AI - why we must listen to the smaller players – Hélène Sauvé
Sustainability topic on the Scott Logic Blog
Beyond the Hype: Can technology sustainability really make a difference?
Beyond the Hype: Can we do better than 'carbon aware' computing?
Artificial intelligence threatens to raid the water reserves of Europe's driest regions – Marianne Gros and Leonie Cater, Politico
Mistral
Green Tech South West
Will new models like DeepSeek reduce the direct environmental footprint of AI? – Chris Adams
Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA)
Hugging Face
Empire of AI – Wikipedia
Computer Says Maybe podcast
GreenIO podcast
V-Bucks – Fortnite Wiki

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