By Sarwar Khan
In a BT sponsored survey conducted by Dell Technologies in 2023, 76% of IT leaders said they believe Sustainable GenAI will be significant or transformative for their organisations. Businesses are eager to reap the benefits and gain competitive advantage, but the high energy intensity of AI technologies is giving many decision makers pause for thought.
GenAI employs large language models [LLMs] with trillions of parameters, and this technology is only beginning to evolve. Estimating the energy demand, training an LLM like ChatGPT-3 consumes approximately 1,300MWh of electricity—equivalent to the annual electricity usage of 120 South African households. This estimate does not include the energy needed to operate such a model.
There are several AI data centres in South Africa. The local data centre is primed for significant growth in the next five years. Given the already significant pressure on South Africa’s energy grid, and the fact that South Africa is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters due to continued reliance on coal fired electricity generation, GenAI’s energy consumption rate should constitute food for thought.
In addition, businesses face increasing regulatory, shareholder and cost pressure to reduce their environmental impacts. Gartner predicts that 70% of enterprises adopting AI will cite sustainability [along with digital sovereignty] as top criteria for selecting public cloud GenAI services by 2027.
With this in mind, we identified these five steps for sustainably adopting and running Sustainable GenAI to help you navigate this challenge:
Establish Your Carbon Baseline
Measure your emissions across the whole digital value chain to establish your carbon baseline. This is a good first step and will help you determine where to reduce emissions.
Embed Sustainability Across Your Infrastructure
Embed sustainability in your data centre by taking steps to increase energy efficiency through management and by refreshing your hardware. This will create a platform for sustainable growth.
Right-Size Your AI investment with As-A-Service Models
As-a-service models can help you ensure your investment meets your needs. By maintaining the latest technology, you can reduce management costs and drive sustainability.
Bring AI to Your Data Wherever it Resides
Whether your data resides in a private data centre, co-location or public cloud, location should be no barrier to deploying AI. How these sites are powered will affect efficiency and sustainability.
Collaborate with Partners and Suppliers
Collaboration is the key to achieving sustainability and energy efficiency. By forming strategic partnerships with third parties, you can tackle the complex challenges of AI adoption effectively.
Sustainable GenAI offers the potential to supercharge productivity and accelerate innovation, but many businesses struggle to determine where to begin. The industry is evolving rapidly, and no one wants to fall behind.
While starting early is important, it’s equally essential to thoroughly evaluate the costs and benefits of AI adoption for your business before launching new initiatives. AI takes many forms, and the potential applications of GenAI are vast and varied.
Assessing the costs and benefits of adoption will give you a much clearer picture of the work you will need to undertake on simultaneously advancing sustainability and energy efficiency. Utilising AI technologies will most likely be key to competitiveness in the medium- and long-term, but you should avoid biting off more than your organisation can chew in the short-term. Ensure that your initiatives are achievable and consistent with your priorities and wider business strategy.
These five steps show that there are many ways to prioritise sustainability and energy efficiency when adopting Sustainable GenAI. The most effective approach is a holistic one, encompassing the whole digital value chain.
