PARIS — The United States won’t commit to tackling the tech sector’s environmental impact as part of a joint G7 agreement on tech policy, and is unwilling to discuss regulating “industry players,” French officials told reporters on Wednesday.
G7 countries have been hashing out a joint declaration on tech policy, due to be published on Friday to coincide with a meeting of the group’s digital ministers in France.
France, which holds the G7 presidency until the end of the year, has set four policy priorities in the digital ministers’ program. One of those priorities is “the resilience and sustainability of the digital sector,” including the environmental footprint of digital technology.
The environmental impact of artificial intelligence specifically, as it consumes huge amounts of energy, has become a talking point in Europe, with the European Environment Agency warning earlier this month that the “the rapid expansion of AI presents a growing challenge to achieving climate neutrality.”
