The Week in Green Software: Generative AI and Cloud Zombies
Environment Variables
The Point of All This Technology
It is okay to solve the technology carbon element and now we are thinking about how to use technology to solve other problems./nThe fastest way to transfer data around the world is on a hard drive on a plane./nThe point of all this is to solve other problems.
Chris Adams is joined by cloud sustainability advocate and founder of Cloud Sustainably, Aerin Booth in this episode of TWiGS brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. On this episode Aerin provides his insight into the cloud to discuss cloud zombies, the effect that generative AI is having on the environment and exciting developments from Xbox (including a list of some of Aerin’s favourite nostalgic games!). We also touch on GreenOps and the future for green software developers.
Learn more about our people:
Find out more about the GSF:
News:
- Generative AI and cloud zombies: Raising the alarm about global climate impact: / Silicon Angle [2:48]
- Report on ChatGPT Model’s Emissions Offers Rare Glimpse of AI’s Climate Impacts: / Truthout.org [2:48]
- Xbox’s New Energy Measurement Tools are World Changing: / Xbox [6:23]
- Wagtail and the summer of code / GitHub [14:32]
Events:
- LF Energy Summit ( June 1 at 2:05 pm - 2:35 pm CET • Paris & Virtual) [19:35]
- GreenTech Southwest Meetup (April 20, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm • Bristol & Virtual) [20:00]
Resources:
- PS5 Power Consumption / ecoenergygeek [10:58]
- The UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill / Linklaters Sustainable Futures [20:16]
- The Carbon Reduction Opportunity of Moving to Amazon Web Services / 451 Research [21:02]
If you enjoyed this episode then please either:
- Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
- Follow and rate on Spotify
- Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!
- Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!
Transcript Below:
Aerin Booth: When I think about anything we choose to do, not only in terms of carbon and IT, but in our life, if it doesn't have purpose, it's almost a waste. And we forget that we're not really building things for ourselves in technology. We're trying to build services for one, helps people in their day-to-day lives and hopefully save the freaking planet in the next upcoming climate change catastrophe the rest of our lives.
Chris Adams: Hello and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.
I'm your host, Chris Adams. Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Week in Green Software, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams, and in this episode we'll be discussing generative AI worrying impact that I could be having on the environment.
We'll also cover some exciting news from Xbox and some events for you to take part in as part of the world of green software. Before we dive in though, let me introduce my guest with us today. We have Aerin Booth the former head of Cloud at the UK Home Office now turned cloud sustainably advocate joining us.
Hi Aerin.
Aerin Booth: Hello. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having me on. So my name is Aerin Booth. I, like Chris said, former, I say in name in, in some ways product manager for Public Cloud at the UK Home Office. But while I was there, I signed 130 million pound contract, was part of negotiating the memorandum, understanding between the UK government and the cloud providers, hyperscalers, AWS, Azure and Google.
Um, and did a lot of other stuff for the cloud community across the UK. And then moved into my own consulting. So I've been running a consulting company for the last few years. Not to go too salesy or anything, but it's called Cloud Sustainably. Just helping people rethink how we consider carbon emissions in it, because it's on the rise.
And obviously we all know and care about this. We wouldn't be listening to this podcast otherwise. And yeah, I think more people talking about it does the world a little bit of good. And yeah, I've been on an interesting journey to say the least.
Chris Adams: Okay, thanks Aerin. So if you're new to this podcast, I am Chris Adams. I am the policy chair, sorry, I'm the chair of the policy working group in the Green Software Foundation and the executive director of the Green. Web Foundation. Every week we do this, we will basically share any of the links that we discuss and do a roundup of the news.
So that's generally of the plan. Today, it's gonna be a bit of a short one cuz it's Easter, so we're gonna keep it short and sweet. And I suppose Aerin, should we look at what stories have come up on our radars today? What's the first one here? There's one about generative ai and in particular, the environmental impact from generative AI and cloud zombies.
Aerin. I think given your background, with cloud, the Cloud zombies one might be an interesting one for you to start with actually.
Aerin Booth: It is really interesting. Yeah, cloud zombies, I mean it's, we could probably use any term we want really. I did a talk on being ethical in tech at Reve last year in November, and just before that I did a talk, I think it was titled DALL-E oh God, what was it called? Now? Is DALL-E Ethical? Something around like the use of ai?
What's the purpose?
Chris Adams: This is DALL-E, the AI m...
The AI-powered Podcast Player
