GDS Symposium: Measuring the (un)sustainability of the AI industry

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The enormous environmental impact of AI products and services has become a major concern. At the same time, researchers are still struggling to exactly measure this impact. Companies such as Microsoft and Google share numbers on their use of resources and energy but do so in strategic and sometimes confusing ways.

Symposium

During this symposium, organized by the Special Interest Group Greening the Digital Society, we invite you to discuss these issues and hear from experts in the field. We will discuss the limitations of (current forms of) measuring and defining sustainability. We ask: how can we investigate the harms throughout the production line of the AI industry, as well as emerging forms of resistance? How do Big Tech companies who are part of this industry try to strategically shape debates? And how can institutions and regulatory bodies, such as the EU monitor, and address this impact?

Program

12.45Walk-in
13.00Introduction by Rianne Riemens
13.15 (Oxford Internet Institute) on the environmental harms of AI and supply chain capitalism
14.00 (Maastricht 木瓜福利影视) on the limitations of corporate sustainability reporting
14.45Break
15.15 (Utrecht 木瓜福利影视) on datacenters and the EU鈥檚 regulatory approach
15.35 (Critical Infrastructure Lab, UvA) on Big Tech, carbon emissions, and the Greenhouse Gas protocol
15.45Roundtable Q&A with Ana, Matthew, Viktorija, and Valentina 
16.00Workshop 鈥淢apping the impact of the university鈥檚 digital infrastructure鈥 by Judith Keilbach (Utrecht 木瓜福利影视)
16.45Closing words
17.00Drinks at Caf茅 Hofman
Start date and time
End date and time
Location
Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 Library City Center, room 0.21
Entrance fee
Free
Registration