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AI's Sustainability Potential According to Microsoft
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This week: Lessons from plunging platinum prices; China's solar knockout round; Hydrogen-powered big rigs
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Dado Ruvic/Reuters
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Welcome back. Microsoft sees great potential for artificial intelligence to boost sustainability. WSJ Pro sat down with Melanie Nakagawa, the company’s chief sustainability officer, to discuss the topic. “We’re obviously incredibly optimistic about the future of AI…[but] we're just at the beginning of this AI journey,” she said.
Key takeaways
Nakagawa highlights “three unique capabilities of AI” which are outlined in the company’s new white paper. First, AI can help measure, predict and optimize complex systems such as energy grid utilization, tracking biodiversity or predicting weather.
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Second, it can accelerate research and development by quickly identifying promising materials from the billions of possibilities that could seriously increase efficiency of things such as solar panels, batteries and climate-resistant crops. A case in point is AI helped Moderna screen mRNA molecules, accelerating its Covid-19 vaccine development.
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Third, AI can improve the efficiency and satisfaction of the sustainability workers who are currently in such short supply. Developers using GitHub’s AI-powered assistant were happier and finished 55% faster. Another study of Boston Consulting Group consultants led by Harvard and MIT academics found AI boosted workers’ productivity by as much as 40%.
However, there are also some sustainability challenges to address. AI uses a lot of energy and water—Microsoft estimates AI currently generates about 1% of all global emissions—so significant growth in the tech could have a big environmental footprint. Shifting to renewables will help but it says innovation in things including cooling systems and processing technologies will be vital. Governance of AI is another thorny challenge, along with addressing big gaps and a lack of standardization in the underlying data.
Why it matters
AI has great potential to boost sustainability, but it needs work to assess its impact on the environment and jobs, as well as oversight of how to develop such a powerful tool. It can be tough to separate fact from fiction in such a hyped market, but Microsoft does have years of AI experience.
Tell me what you think: Send me your feedback and suggestions at rochelle.toplensky@wsj.com or reply to any newsletter. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up here.
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Content from: DELOITTE |
Shell’s Jan Toschka on Innovating to Bend Sustainable Aviation Fuel’s Cost Curve |
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Uncertain demand for SAF is an obstacle to scaling production. Shell Aviation’s president discusses how using book-and-claim for direct transactions between suppliers and corporate customers can help. Keep Reading ›
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Plunging prices for platinum and other critical metals could derail mining investment needed to develop new supplies, posing a significant threat to decarbonization targets set by countries around the world, writes Yusuf Khan.
Platinum is used to make the electrolyzers that produce hydrogen and the sharp down cycle in South Africa’s platinum mining sector demonstrates how low prices and a lack of investment could slow the energy transition.
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Chinese Solar Knockout Round
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Hu Chengwei/Getty Images
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Hydrogen-Powered Big Rigs
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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
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300 miles
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The range of battery-electric heavy-duty trucks today. Hydrogen trucks have a range of up to 500 miles.
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Each week, we will share selections from WSJ Pro that provide insight and analysis. The articles are free for Wall Street Journal members.
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🎧 Listen to venture capitalist Laura Deming of Longevity Fund discuss futuristic solutions to aging.
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NuScale's project failure is a blow to nuclear's future (Barron's)
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Climate tech investing surges in the third quarter (Greenbiz)
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We won’t tackle the climate crisis unless we transform financing (FT)
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Sweden's state-of-the-art plant for sorting plastics for recycling (AP)
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New York sues PepsiCo in new plastic pollution fight (Politico)
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Climate finance for developing countries is rising but is still short of the $100 billion a year promise (OECD)
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