{"id":346392,"date":"2024-10-11T12:25:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T10:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346392"},"modified":"2024-10-11T12:25:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T10:25:49","slug":"former-google-ceo-on-ai-were-not-going-to-hit-the-climate-goals-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346392","title":{"rendered":"Former Google CEO on AI: \u201cwe\u2019re not going to hit the climate goals anyway\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"723\" height=\"407\" data-attachment-id=\"346394\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?attachment_id=346394\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?fit=1680%2C945&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1680,945\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"0,2019-05-01-image-21\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?fit=723%2C407&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?resize=723%2C407&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-346394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?w=1446&amp;ssl=1 1446w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Google\u2019s former chief Eric Schmidt<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From <a href=\"https:\/\/wattsupwiththat.com\/2024\/10\/09\/former-google-ceo-on-ai-were-not-going-to-hit-the-climate-goals-anyway\/\">Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Essay by<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wattsupwiththat.com\/author\/eworrall1\/\">Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026 any moves to curtail the expanding amounts of energy consumed in developing \u2026 ever more advanced AI models are futile\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Eric Schmidt: Build more AI datacenters, we aren\u2019t going to \u2018hit climate goals anyway\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps the power-draining tech is the solution after all, posits former Google CEO<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/Author\/Dan-Robinson\">Dan Robinson&nbsp;<\/a><br>Tue&nbsp;8&nbsp;Oct&nbsp;2024&nbsp;&nbsp;\/\/&nbsp;13:00&nbsp;UTC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google\u2019s former chief Eric Schmidt thinks we shouldn\u2019t let AI\u2019s ballooning power consumption worry us, because putting AI to work on climate change issues will be our best shot at solving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schmidt was speaking at a recent AI summit in Washington DC, and his comments echo those of Microsoft founder Bill Gates who expressed&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2024\/06\/28\/bill_gates_ai_power_consumption\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">very similar sentiments<\/a>&nbsp;at an event in London earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll of that will be swamped by the enormous needs of this new technology,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cwe may make mistakes with respect to how it\u2019s used, but I can assure you that we\u2019re not going to get there through conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schmidt further stated that he believes that \u201cwe\u2019re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we\u2019re not organized to do it,\u201d and that he would rather bet on AI solving the problems than constraining the development of the tech and still having the problems anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This rather optimistic view of the Earth-saving potential of AI can perhaps be explained by the fact that Schmidt has his own investments in the technology. According to&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/eric-schmidt-google-ai-data-centers-energy-climate-goals-2024-10\">Business Insider<\/a>, he is the founder of&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dronexl.co\/2024\/01\/24\/white-stork-eric-schmidts-ai-military-drone\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">White Stork<\/a>, a defense company that develops AI-powered drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2024\/10\/08\/eric_schmidt_speech\/?td=rt-3a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2024\/10\/08\/eric_schmidt_speech\/?td=rt-3a<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I guess in the future radical greens won\u2019t enjoy the same social media and search engine privileges they once did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A green political movement can disappear really quickly when it outlives it usefulness, just look at the rapid fall into obscurity of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Greta_Thunberg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Greta Thunberg<\/a>&nbsp;and her&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fridays_for_Future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cFridays for Future\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026 any moves to curtail the expanding amounts of energy consumed in developing \u2026 ever more advanced AI models are futile\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":346394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691823433,691818164,691830884,691819793],"class_list":{"0":"post-346392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ai-artificial-intelligence-2","9":"tag-climate-goals","10":"tag-eric-schmidt","11":"tag-google","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/02019-05-01-image-21.webp?fit=1680%2C945&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1s6Y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":335489,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335489","url_meta":{"origin":346392,"position":0},"title":"Google Damage Control Over AI Driven 48% CO2 Emissions Surge","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Are all the Silicon Valley hippies jumping on board the AI greed train, selling out their alleged green principles for big pay checks, trying to avoid each other\u2019s eyes? Are they hiding their MAGA hats at the bottom of their rucksacks? Or are there intense Soviet style denunciations of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"AI (artificial intelligence)\"","block_context":{"text":"AI (artificial intelligence)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ai-artificial-intelligence-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0google-building-logo-shutterstock_559400386.jpg?fit=1200%2C942&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0google-building-logo-shutterstock_559400386.jpg?fit=1200%2C942&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0google-building-logo-shutterstock_559400386.jpg?fit=1200%2C942&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0google-building-logo-shutterstock_559400386.jpg?fit=1200%2C942&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, 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Greenwashing Massive AI Energy Consumption","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/05\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Accused of signing zero carbon nuclear deals with no timeline, scanty details.","rel":"","context":"In \"AI (artificial intelligence)\"","block_context":{"text":"AI (artificial intelligence)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ai-artificial-intelligence-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0Google-I_o-event.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0Google-I_o-event.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0Google-I_o-event.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, 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Intelligence is a Challenge to Climate Goals","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/09\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"How can a data center with co-located batteries be expected to compete against China\u2019s coal powered data centers, or the USA\u2019s gas- and nuclear-powered data centers?","rel":"","context":"In \"2035 Targets Advice\"","block_context":{"text":"2035 Targets 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