A new environmental report from Google shows that due to the injection of artificial intelligence into many of its core products, the company's emissions have risen by nearly half in five years, making it more difficult to achieve its goal of eliminating carbon emissions by 2030.
This annual report was released on Tuesday and covers Google's progress in achieving its environmental goals last year. Alphabet stated that its total greenhouse gas emissions for the entire year of 2023 were 14.3 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The company stated that this is 48% higher than in 2019 and 13% higher than in 2022. Google stated that energy consumption in its data centers and increased emissions in its supply chain are the main culprits, and stated that its efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence into its products may make reducing emissions more difficult in the future.
Google wrote in the report:& quot; As we further integrate artificial intelligence into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging as the increase in computing power of artificial intelligence will increase energy demand, and our investment in technology infrastructure is expected to increase, leading to increased emissions& amp;quot;