Is sustainable deep learning possible?

Scientists are attempting to replicate the brain's frugality to make deep learning less polluting. Not surprisingly, researchers are working on new methods with a view to reducing the carbon footprint of these machines. In June, American company OpenAI unveiled the world's largest text generator. Called GPT-3, the new artificial intelligence (AI) model can, among other things, write creative fiction and translate legal jargon into plain English, two functions that have been achieved using deep learning. However, above and beyond these technological breakthroughs, it is important to bear in mind that the creation of this new tool generated an enormous amount of pollution.