What are BITC’s thoughts on AI and the environment as many companies are integrating it?

AI has the potential to be a force for good by improving efficiencies and enabling better monitoring and analysis. But, as with social impacts, we need to be thoughtful about how we use it, rather than assuming the good will outweigh the bad. For example, energy demand for data centres is forecast to double by 2030, consuming more than a country like Japan does in a year. And they need significant quantities of water to cool servers. There is still a long way to go to fully understand the potential positive and negative impacts of AI, so businesses need to be part of measuring and analysing the data related to their own usage so that evidence based decisions can be made as the technology progresses.