A new report from the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has revealed a 150% average increase in indirect carbon emissions from four leading AI-focused tech companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta - between 2020 and 2023.

The spike is largely attributed to the high energy demands of AI systems and datacentres, which account for a rising portion of global electricity consumption.

AI and machine learning contributed 0.2% of global emissions in 2021, which even then was about 10% of the entire tech sector. It has accelerated from there.

Among the worst performers, Amazon's operational emissions increased by 182% over the 2020-2023 period, followed by Microsoft (155%), Meta (145%) and Alphabet (138%).

Read the full article on Computing here.