University libraries

Every month, the Joseph-Fourier University Library hosts a workshop to promote scientific culture: " La science infuse."
To mark Eco-Responsible Digital Month, we invite you to explore the environmental impacts of AI during a lecture by Sylvain Bouveret, Professor at Ensimag, Grenoble-INP, and the Grenoble Computer Science Laboratory 

AI has experienced unprecedented growth since the advent of deep learning techniques in the 2010s, and particularly over the past five years with the development of generative AI. This development was only made possible by the convergence of two factors: on the one hand, the development of substantial computing resources, and on the other, the availability of massive datasets without which it would be impossible to train current AI models. Consequently, the operation of these AI systems relies on a significant digital hardware infrastructure, which is generally invisible to users and whose manufacturing and use, among other things, have a considerable environmental impact.
In this presentation, we will provide some insights to help understand this impact. We will show how this impact manifests itself both on a global scale (in the case of greenhouse gas emissions, for example) and on a very local scale, such as in conflicts over the use of water resources. Finally, we will outline some trends and discuss whether AI can be compatible with planetary boundaries.