Governments and private sector launch Coalition for Sustainable AI

Stakeholders including 37 tech companies and 11 countries have launched the Coalition for Sustainable AI with the goal to reduce the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence.

The coalition is spearheaded by France, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and was announced this week at the AI Action Summit in Paris. 

Among the 37 corporate members are Aveva, Ericsson, IBM, Nvidia, Salesforce (which recently launched a public AI energy efficiency benchmarking platform), SAP and Schneider Electric. 

The coalition recognises that while AI may be instrumental in helping the world understand and reduce GHG emissions, it also has a negative impact on the environment – related to data centre infrastructure and its energy and water use. It aims to bring together stakeholders from across the sector’s value chain to spur collaboration and innovation to reduce this footprint.

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Building on existing sustainable AI initiatives

The Coalition for Sustainable AI will draw insights from several of the initiatives that were launched at the AI Action Summit around the technology’s environmental impacts, including a scientific position paper on fostering the environmental performance of AI, as well as a ‘frugal AI’ hackathon.

In addition, the International Energy Agency (IEA, also a coalition member) is launching the first global observatory dedicated to energy and AI, aiming to centralise and analyse data to better anticipate energy needs, optimise energy systems and promote innovations in AI applied to energy.

A roadmap to standardise the environmental impact of AI has also been established by more than 30 private and public partners to define guidelines for the environmental assessment of the technology.

‘AI as an engine for the sustainable transition’

Commenting on SAP’s participation in the coalition, Olivier Nollent, Managing Director of SAP France, said acting in unity between all tech stakeholders is essential to develop sustainable AI. “We will do everything in our power to make AI an engine for the ecological transition while making sure that its development and use abide by the ethical and environmental principles established by the EU,” he added.

The coalition also gathers a number of research organisations, NGOs, and investors including Ardian, Crédit Agricole, Daphni, Eurazeo, Growth Fund, the National Fund of Greece, Mirova, Princeville Capital and Tikehau Capital.

Supporting governments include Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Kenya, Korea, Morocco, Norway and the UK.