• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 2, 2024

Advertisers need to start thinking about more sustainable practices with the growth of technology and artificial intelligence.

Amazon, which has committed to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, but AI has become a technology that requires lots of water and energy.

The technology has drawn criticism over its use of energy and water. The company web services business, AWS, has been working to make it more efficient and has formed a partnership with Orbital Materials that uses AI to develop decarbonization technologies.

Under the multi-year contract, the two will develop technologies and materials for Amazon's data centers to remove carbon, cool semiconductors, and make better use of water as it relates to the technology. 

Developing new advanced materials has traditionally been a slow process. Orbital replaces this with generative AI design to quicken the speed and efficacy of materials discovery and new technology commercialization.

Its first product is a carbon-removal technology using a proprietary active material.

Since establishing its lab in the first quarter of 2024, Orbital has achieved a 10x improvement in its material’s performance through the use of its AI platform -- an order of magnitude faster than traditional development and breaking new ground in carbon-removal efficacy.

Gartner predicts that 30% of enterprises will have implemented an AI-augmented development and testing strategy by 2025.

Researchers estimate that each string of prompts uses about 16 ounces of water at data centers that house these AI systems.

Microsoft’s latest environmental report shows its water consumption rose 34% from 2021 to 2022, reaching nearly 1.7 billion gallons. 

Google in 2023 reported it wanted to replenish more water than it consumes. Its water consumption rose nearly 22% compared with the same period to 5.56 billion gallons.