The Download: reasons to be optimistic about AI's energy use, and Caiwei Chen's three things

Two weeks ago, we launched Power Hungry, a new series shining a light on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial intelligence revolution. It raised some worrying issues, not least the incredible energy demands of AI video generation. But there are also reasons to be hopeful: innovations that could improve the efficiency of the software behind AI models, the computer chips those models run on, and the data centers where those chips hum around the clock. Here's what you need to know about how energy use, and therefore carbon emissions, could be cut across all three of those domains, plus an added argument for cautious optimism: the underlying business realities may ultimately bend toward more energy-efficient AI. In each issue of our print magazine, we ask a member of staff to tell us about three things they're loving at the moment. For our latest edition, which was all about creativity, we asked our China reporter Caiwei Chen to give us an insight into her life.