AI sweat: Chris Preist on data centre emissions

12 June 2026 Notes from a Sustainable AI seminar by Professor Chris Preist on 10 June 2026, part of a series of events on responsible AI by ClimateAction.tech with ustwo. My thoughts in [square brackets] - any errors will be mine. Direct emissions: digital’s own footprint. Enabling: good and bad things the AI lets/makes happen. Systemic: induced larger social change. Digital tech has roughly same emissions as aviation. But because it is much more widely diffused through global population than aviation (~20% vs ~1% of pop), different emissions reduction strategies will be needed. Data centre electricity use is exceptional, water use is normal. A large data centre uses the same electricity as a large city, and the same water as a small housing estate. Measuring AI emissions [inside the DC]: Functional unit of measurement: one typical chatbot interaction. Measurement is inherently imprecise and ballpark, though numbers often present many digital places. [precision without certainty.]…