AI and the Energy Transition

In recent years, the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has been felt across diverse industries, significantly enhancing efficiency and precision. 

On one hand, the increasing complexity of AI models has led to heightened accuracies but at the cost of substantial energy consumption. For example, training GPT-3 on a database exceeding 500 billion words would require 1,287 megawatt hours of electricity and 10,000 computer chips—equivalent to powering approximately 121 homes for a year in the United States. Despite these environmental implications, the rise in energy consumption has not proportionally translated into accuracy improvements. As environmental concerns escalate with the rapid expansion of technology, there is a growing focus on its carbon footprint. In response, the notion of “Green AI” (or “Sustainable AI”) has emerged, emphasizing the integration of sustainable practices in the design, training, and deployment of AI models to mitigate their environmental impact.

On the other hand, AI holds immense potential to actively contribute to the realization of environmental and other sustainability goals, such as the Green Deal, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and optimizing efficiency across various sectors. From energy production and consumption to agriculture, land use, biodiversity management, communications, transportation, and smart mobility, AI plays a pivotal role. Furthermore, AI applications are instrumental in addressing and adapting to climate change, offering robust tools for prediction, resilience, and strategic management.

This workshop aims to delve into these two crucial dimensions of AI – i) Sustainable AI and ii) AI for Sustainability. Participants will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with making AI more environmentally friendly and its role in promoting sustainability across diverse fields of applications.

Preliminary program 

09:00    Morning coffee and registration

09:30    Welcome and setting the scene (Moderator: Amparo Alonso Betanzos, UDC ES and NTNU)

• Keynote by Bjarne Foss – Managing Director Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, NTNU

10:30    Part 1: Sustainable AI

• 5 presentations on the topics:
  • How to measure energy consumption of algorithms (Coral Calero, UCLM ES)
  • Personalization and greener models (Jorge Paz Ruza, UDC ES)
  • Reducing the footprint of Deep Learning models (Brais Cancela, UDC ES )
  • Long-life learning (Oscar Fontenla-Romero, UDC ES)
  • Exploring Federated Learning and Edge Computing for collaborative and more sustainable AI (Bertha Guijarro, UDC ES )
• Interventions, Q&A and moderated dialogue

12:00    Lunch

13:00    Part 2: AI for Sustainability

• 3 modules consisting of presentations, interventions, Q&A and moderated dialogue
  • The relevance of psychosociological variables in AI development
    • Christian Klöckner, NTNU 
    • Rialda Spahic, Equinor 
  • AI in cities, urban life, and transport 
    • Frauke Behrendt, TU/e NL 
    • Timothy Capper, OptiSpark 
    • Christian Klöckner, NTNU 
  • AI in industry
    • Nhan Van Nguyen, eSmart Systems 
    • Pablo Fariñas Alvariño, Navantia – UDC ES 
    • José Mª Álvarez Gallego, Inditex 

15:30    Summing up and closing remarks

• Keynote by Gunnar Tufte – Prof. computer science and Open AI-Lab, NTNU
• Closing remarks by Amparo Alonso Betanzos

16:30    END

Confirmed speakers:

Amparo Alonso Betanzos – Professor @Univ. of Coruna, Spain and NTNU (workshop moderator)

Bjarne Foss – Managing Director Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience @NTNU

Coral Calero – Prof. computer science @Univ. of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Jorge Paz Ruza – ML Researcher @Univ. of Coruna, Spain

Brais Cancela Barizo – Prof. @Univ. of Coruna, Spain

Oscar Fontenla-Romero – Prof. computer science @Univ. of Coruna, Spain

Bertha Guijarro – Prof. computer science @Univ. of Coruna, Spain

Christian A. Klöckner – Prof. Social Psychology and quantitative methods @NTNU

Rialda Spahic – Head of responsible AI @Equinor

Frauke Behrendt – Ass. Prof in Transitions to Sustainable Mobility @TU/e, The Netherlands

Timothy Capper – CEO @OptiSpark

Nhan Van Nguyen, Head of Product AI @eSmart Systems

Pablo Fariñas Alvariño – Dept. Naval and Industrial Engineering @Univ. of Coruna, Spain

José Mª Álvarez Gallego – Corporate Development Director @Inditex

Gunnar Tufte – Prof. computer science and Open AI-Lab @NTNU