French AI summit to focus on environmental impact of energy-hungry tech

World leaders at the next AI summit will focus on the impact on the environment and jobs, including the possibility of ranking the greenest AI companies, it has been announced. Rating artificial intelligence companies in terms of their ecological impact is among the proposals under consideration, while other areas being looked at include the effect on the labour market, giving all countries access to the technology and bringing more states under the wing of global AI governance initiatives. France will host the next global summit on 10 and 11 February, with international politicians expected to attend alongside tech executives and experts. Anne Bouverot, Paris's special envoy for AI, said discussions will include measuring the technology's impact on the environment. "We'll definitely push for more transparency by all players and maybe a way to do that is to have a ranking or leaderboard," she said, adding that such a system would highlight companies that are not transparent about their environmental impact.