The Difficulty of Estimating the Carbon Footprint of Machine Learning - KDnuggets

Machine learning (ML) often mimics how human brains operate by attaching virtual neurons with virtual synapses. Deep learning (DL) is a subset of ML putting steroids into the virtual brain and growing it orders of magnitude larger. This neuron count has skyrocketed hand-in-hand with the advances in computational power. Most headlines about ML solving hard problems like self-driving cars or facial recognition use DL, but the steroids come with a cost. Global warming is arguably the most critical problem our generation has to solve in the following years.