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Dm ANALYSIS: CONTENT GROWTH Is AI making tech even less environmentally friendly? Tom Dunning, CEO of Ad Signal, looks at the potential environmental impact of relentless content growth The amount of digital data in the world is growing by 23 per cent year on year and, as a result, is quickly becoming a serious environmental issue. Crucially, many people are unaware that this is even an issue at all. At any point in time the world is only using 20 per cent of the available capacity, yet organisations continue to provision more capacity, partly due to the concern over limited availability driven by rarity of resources. Backup upon backup is created of each item of content so that each organisation in the chain can meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Disaster Recovery (DR) requirements; multiply this by the rapid growth of social content and the number of photos/videos people now take for each shot they use. Streaming services continue to grow in viewership and offer an ever-increasing library of content. We are collectively stumbling down a path of environmental damage that will grow exponentially unless we take immediate action. THE DANGER OF RISING DATA We're living in an era of rapid technological development and it's unreasonable to expect people and businesses to stop innovating, stop adopting, and stop using technology altogether in order to reduce the carbon emissions caused by rising data. The key, therefore, is to find solutions that can scale the reduction of carbon emissions of data alongside the growth of data content. Over 3.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions are estimated to be generated by data centres and network traffic. This makes network traffic responsible for even more CO2 emissions than the global aviation industry (2.1 per cent). That figure is a significant issue, and one made even worse by predictions that data centres will generate 14 per cent of global CO2 emissions by 2040, comparable to the agricultural industry. Businesses and large organisations in particular are taking data and technology for granted, focusing on how they can leverage it to boost efficiency and generate bigger profits. All the time this is happening, data volumes are rising, and network traffic is increasing with little to no thought from the people doing the damage. Video storage is a particular environmental danger, accounting for an estimated 70 per cent of the CO2 emissions generated by data centres. It's the densest content format that we have and equates to roughly 1.84 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions. Ultimately there are only three ways to reduce the carbon related to content storage: 1.Reduce file sizes - normally through compression rather than reduced quality 2.Store less - challenging as content grows 3.Store it on more sustainable solutions In reality, a high volume of the large video storage comes from duplicated versions, many of which producers struggle to identify. As a result, content producers and holders can have a huge impact on emissions reduction just by de-duplicating high volumes of video storage. One UK broadcaster is holding 127 versions of the same episode but only around 20 of these are unique needed versions. The technology to achieve this is already out in the marketplace, solutions like Ad Signal's Match and Compose products can reduce emissions down from 1.84 to 0.5 per cent, for example, while also making it commercially beneficial to do so by reducing the storage and data transfer burden of duplicated videos. Video is the low hanging fruit; it isn't feasible for industries like aviation to make such a drastic reduction. 20 @DMMagAndAwards November/December 2023 www.document-manager.com
ANALYSIS: CONTENT GROWTH Dm HOW 'AI WILL BURN THE WORLD' The biggest threat to sustainability across the board is AI. AI has seen rapid adoption across the world this year, whether it be businesses utilising large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to drive efficiencies or generating data to understand the content and its potential usage. However, there is an enormous environmental cost associated with AI that's only increasing alongside adoption. While businesses and people have seen benefits from AI, the components that power it, such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), require carbon-heavy materials to produce. Alongside that, the powering of these components and the colossal cooling required significantly multiply the carbon emissions produced by AI. AI is plotted for a 37.3 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) by 2030 which we believe to be underestimated. The training, reviewing and retraining process for AI models typically takes numerous iterations before it is ready for commercialisation. It's this training process which has the biggest compute demand and therefore the majority of the environmental damage, which we should expect to happen in the next 2-3 years, rather than by 2030. Our Match product can reduce the cost and carbon of AI processing on video by more than 75 per cent. A further damaging feature is the object storage of AI models, requiring libraries of images, audio and video for training purposes. In this area at least, companies can adopt carbon efficient solutions for deduplication to reduce some of these emissions. AI IS NOT THE PEG FOR EVERY HOLE Collectively, we need to understand that the best thing for businesses and for longevity is a healthy environment. That has not been the approach taken by many business decision makers when it comes to AI. IDC forecasts 90 per cent of new enterprise apps will use AI by 2025. In reality, many of these applications do not need AI (many using it as a gimmick) or could achieve the same benefits with other technology. While it's impossible to expect everyone to give up AI, especially since it has brought some benefits for businesses, it's those jumping on the AI trend blindly that are contributing to the stark rise in network traffic, data volumes and subsequently carbon emissions. HOW TECH PLAYERS CAN REDUCE EMISSIONS The biggest and arguably most important step that we can collectively take to reduce the environmental impact of data content growth is raising awareness of the extent of the issue. We all have our own preconceived notions of 'sustainability' but ultimately, we're talking about climate change and reducing carbon emissions. The definition of our collective goal as a society is important and as part of that, it is essential that greenwashing is stopped. Organisations such as the Digital Sustainability Alliance are playing a crucial role in this, bringing together innovative businesses that are pulling together to make a difference in the field. That starts with universal transparent monitoring led by legislation in order to measure the climate impact of organisations and hold them accountable. Carbon calculators should be available for all AI products that use non-renewable energy, even if it is carbon offset. Carbon offset does not outright prevent damage: it seeks to mitigate it and it cannot be the whole solution to our problems, though mitigation is better than nothing. We also need monitoring for thermal damage not related to power, such as immersion cooling. Immersion cooling reduces power for cooling by 30 per cent, however the server heat is still released on the planet, causing damage. Without transparent monitoring services, consumers cannot make informed choices and we are obscuring key information on the impact on our planet. Between businesses, organisations and education bodies, we can all gather the pieces of the sustainability puzzle and it's important to aggregate that data together so that we all have a combined understanding. SUSTAINABLE TECH FOR THE FUTURE Ultimately, sustainability is a choice. That remains true even through economic uncertainty and budget constraints. There is a plethora of companies out there with sustainable technology solutions and these companies should be considered when businesses are making tech choices. A common misconception is that sustainability comes at the expense of cost or performance, but many of the companies developing these sustainable technologies are doing it with an environmental-first approach. This not only ensures carbon savings, but also cost savings and performance boosts, making them an obvious tech choice and an easy way to reduce the emissions of rising data. More info: www.ad-signal.io www.document-manager.com November/December 2023 @DMMagAndAwards 21
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