Google and Apple are taking different approaches to their climate commitments when it comes to AI, which requires a lot of energy.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently said that the company’s 2030 carbon-free energy goal has not been met due to the surge in AI development. Speaking at a Carnegie Mellon University event, Pichai acknowledged that the race to develop new AI models, including inefficient pre-training processes, is making their energy targets challenging.
He is said to be optimistic about AI’s long-term potential to drive renewable energy investments, but as of now, he described the current situation as an “uncomfortable interim phase.”
On the other hand, as of now, Apple is standing firm on its climate ambitions. Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, said that the company’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030 in a recent TIME video. Jackson talked about Apple’s strategy, which includes eliminating 75% of emissions and focusing on carbon removal and offset projects for the remaining 25%.
The head of the EPA, Michael Regan, has praised Apple for making big changes to its supply chain and setting a good example for how companies can be more environmentally friendly.
On the one hand, I appreciate what Apple is doing or how Apple is reaching its environmental targets, but on the other hand, could it be because Apple is lagging so much behind the likes of Microsoft and Google in the AI race? Could this be the reason the carbon neutrality score of Apple is so much better than Google’s at this moment? Would it be fair to compare Google with Apple, specifically in terms of AI, when Google has been successfully running its own LLM models for at least a year now? On the other hand, Apple Intelligence is still half-baked, and most of it’s AI processing relies on OpenAI.
What’s your take on it?
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