During his visiting research stay at EPFL, Marcel attended the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and several United Nations (UN) sister agencies. Held every year in July, this three-day event brings together experts from academia, industry, non-governmental organisations, and leading technology companies to explore how AI can be leveraged for societal benefit.
Marcel joined the full-day workshop ‘Navigating the Intersect of AI, Environment, and Energy for a Sustainable Future‘, which featured panel discussions and presentations from representatives of Harvard University, Nvidia, Mistral, Hugging Face, and many others.
A recurring theme was the importance of reducing AI’s direct environmental impacts, particularly energy use and water consumption. However, the indirect impacts of AI remain less studied. Marcel emphasised the need for stronger frameworks to measure and monitor these indirect effects, a perspective that resonated positively with many participants. Still, some attendees expressed concerns about the feasibility and practicality of tracking such indirect impacts at scale.
Find out more about the workshop here.
