Interview with De la Tech à la Terre on rethinking digital tech
Yannick Bole-Richard, consultant in responsible digital and generative AI, interviewed me for his newsletter De la Tech à la Terre. An excerpt, translated from French, is on the Decarbonade blog.
We discussed about what I mean by 'digital decarbonization'. It's about more than just the carbon footprint; it's also about energy, water, resources, and rare metals. I shared the three dimensions of digital sustainability and sufficiency:
Optimization: doing better with less.
Sufficiency: not doing something when it isn't needed.
Purpose: asking why we are building a technology, who it is for, and what societal value and impact it will have.
Most of the today's conversation focuses on optimization within the same system. The way technology is used is as important as efficiency, if not more so.
I also made a point about AI. Machine learning has been around for a long time and can assist with climate-related work. Generative AI is different. It uses a lot of energy, sits in the hands of a few companies, and has almost no positive impact on the climate. Calling both "AI" creates confusion.
When it comes to governments, I've found that demonstrating the benefits of sustainable digital design in terms of speed, SEO, and cost can change the conversation.
Read the full interview: https://decarbonade.co/en/blog/rethinking-digital-technology-to-break-free-from-the-status-quo-de-la-tech-a-la-terre
