Enabling sustainable AI: Balancing innovation with responsibility
Published by Colt Technology Services on December 11, 2024
By Thomas Moran, Senior Lead Technology Strategist at Colt
We learn more every day about the amazing potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yet, when it comes to using AI, businesses need to be mindful of both its tremendous potential and its significant risks. While AI can accelerate innovation and time to market, its use can also make it harder for organisations to meet their sustainability goals. So, how can we strike the right balance?
Alongside industry peers, we’ve sponsored a new paper by the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) which addresses the challenges and opportunities AI presents. ‘Digital Infrastructure Modernization for an AI Future: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead’ looks at how modernising infrastructure in three key areas – networks, equipment upgrades, and data centres – can support sustainable AI.
Preparing for an AI-enabled future
At Colt, we have long been preparing for the great bandwidth increases AI demands for many years. Our approach focuses on two main areas:
- Modernising infrastructure: We have been replacing power-hungry legacy systems with modern devices that have much smaller physical footprints and lower energy consumption
- Innovative NaaS: We have developed industry-leading NaaS capabilities, enabled by Software Defined Networking (SDN) and virtualisation
Our future-ready network enables customers to scale without proportional increases in energy consumption. This means they can optimise their IT infrastructure, reduce supply chain emissions and deploy bandwidth intensive applications simultaneously.
The shift to dynamic IT
The evolving demands of businesses require IT platforms that balance priorities like ease of use, security, performance and cost. Telco services that have been traditionally deployed in static service models can now be adjusted in real time as conditions and demands change.
By enabling customers to move beyond fixed capacity for a fixed term, Colt NaaS enables cloud like consumption models that have significant sustainability benefits. Scaling bandwidth using real-time provisioning, automation and APIs opens a range of new opportunities for what we call intent-based optimisation.
Among the most innovative uses of intent-based optimisation are temporal and geographic workload shifting. Here, AI workloads like model training can be moved to times and regions where renewable energy is abundant. With intent-based optimisation, we’re helping customers to optimise workflows and platforms based on our shared interest in sustainable growth.
Driving sustainability at every level
Our ESG by design strategy drives our teams to consistently seek innovative ways of delivering new capabilities, while minimising energy use. Alongside ambitious commitments to reducing carbon emissions and e-waste, we aim to deliver sustainable growth that empowers transformative technologies like AI.
Alongside this, it’s of critical importance to us that we partner with organisations like GeSI and The Arctic Arts Project to tackle environmental challenges and share data and best practice. The European Green Digital Coalition, led by GeSI, has developed a Net Impact framework to assess investment in IT infrastructure and ‘green’ technologies. Alongside more traditional ESG reporting metrics, these methods are increasingly being used by companies, investors and regulators to provide a balanced picture of the tradeoffs involved in ‘green’ investment.
Shaping a sustainable future
As AI evolves, so does our responsibility to prioritise sustainability. By investing in energy-efficient technologies, modernising our infrastructure, and collaborating with like-minded companies, we are not just responding to the future needs of our industry, we’re helping to shape it.
Explore the future of AI-ready digital infrastructure (DI)
For deeper insights into the challenges and opportunities ahead for modern DI for an AI future, explore GeSI’s paper. If you’d like to learn more about how our technology and sustainability solutions can support your digital transformation, get in touch today. Our teams offer consultations and advisory services tailored to your needs.
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