Are Microsoft’s AI and environmental goals compatible?

At a research and development lab in Redmond, Microsoft scientists are racing to develop technologies to make their data centers greener and more efficient. During a science fair event Tuesday, they showed off everything from low-carbon steel to microfluidics technology that cools AI chips by injecting liquid into channels smaller than a human hair that resemble the veins of a leaf.

But even as Microsoft works to reduce the water and energy demand of its data centers, the company is also signing new leases for gas-powered data centers across the country. Microsoft’s race to develop ever-more powerful artificial intelligence tools has many questioning whether its AI and environmental goals are at odds.

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“ Bold goals are important,” said Alistair Speirs, head of Microsoft Azure infrastructure, in an interview with KUOW. “It's important to set that goal, set that moonshot, and set that North Star as we're driving towards this.”

Alistair did not say whether Microsoft was still on target to meet those goals, but noted the company’s success in reducing carbon emissions associated with constructing data centers and other facilities.

“Increasingly, where we're focusing is how do we decarbonize the construction material and the other sources of carbon that go into our overall emissions,” he said. “We're doing that through projects like green steel with cross-laminated timber to replace other building materials with new forms of concrete.”

This week Bloomberg reported Microsoft officials are considering walking back the company’s pledge to match 100% of its hourly electricity use with renewable energy by 2030. In 2020, Microsoft pledged to become carbon negative by 2030, and to remove all of the carbon the company has emitted since its founding by 2050.

“This is a challenge, and when we described our environmental goals back in 2020, we described it as a moonshot,” Speirs said. “The capabilities didn't exist yet. The amount of renewable energy didn't exist yet on the grid to meet the growth that we expected to see. And so while we're continuing to work on this process, again, we don't build energy generation ourselves, and so we're looking to partner with the community, with the industry, with policymakers to really help drive this sustainable transition.”