The pledge doesn’t acknowledge the link with fossil fuels, even as the data center boom threatens tech companies’ pledges to reduce planet-warming emissions. Some experts worry that part of the pledge plays into an industry narrative, which asserts that data center impacts can be mitigated by using AI to address climate change.
“We have seen over many, many years that voluntary pledges are not enough and that self-regulation by industry does not work — we can’t trust them to grade their own homework,” said Alli Finn, head of community partnerships at AI Now Institute, a nonprofit that studies the societal effects of AI.
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