This story originally appeared on Yale Environment 360 and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Some 50 miles southwest of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, and strategically located close to a cluster of the island's top universities, the 3,500-acre Hsinchu Science Park is globally celebrated as the incubator of Taiwan's most successful technology companies. It opened in 1980, the government having acquired the land and cleared the rice fields,with the aim of creating a technology hub that would combine advanced research and industrial production. Today Taiwan's science parks house more than 1,100 companies, employ 321,000 people, and generate 127 billion in annual revenue. Along the way, Hsinchu Science Park's Industrial Technology Research Institute has given birth to startups that have grown into world leaders.

Bill Gates has claimed that artificial intelligence will be more of a help than a hindrance in achieving climate goals, despite growing concern that a surge in new datacentres could drain green energy supplies. The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder told journalists that AI would enable countries to use less energy, even as they require more data centres, by making technology and electricity grids more efficient. Gates downplayed fears over AI's climate impact after mounting concerns that the tech breakthrough could lead to a surge in energy demand and require more fossil fuels as a result. "Let's not go overboard on this," Gates said. "Datacentres are, in the most extreme case, a 6% addition [in energy demand] but probably only 2 to 2.5%. The question is, will AI accelerate a more than 6% reduction? And the answer is: certainly," he said.

Businessman draws increase arrow graph corporate future growth year 2022 to 2023. The year 2023 is set to be revolutionary for technology, with many disruptive trends expected to reshape how businesses function and how people interact with each other. From metaverse-based virtual workspaces, advancements in quantum computing and green energy sources to innovations in robots and satellite connectivity – here's a look at the technological trends that could define the coming year. According to BCG's "Mind the Tech Gap" survey, a majority of businesses across 13 countries plan to increase their spending on digital transformation in 2023 vs. 2022. The top two areas for future investments are business model transformation and sustainability, with respondents expressing concern over the uncertain return on investment from digital transformation initiatives.

Data and cloud are not virtual technology. They need costly infrastructure and electricity. Researchers forecast that in the future their emissions could be much more than expected. Who does not make us sleep the night? A few weeks ago the UK break the temperature record, for the first time the temperature rose over 40 C. The summer nights are warm and humid and it is hard to sleep on similar days.

Energy consumption is a major factor to plan for when implementing a long-term project or service that uses large-scale machine learning algorithms. Now, a team of researchers from Georgia Tech has created an interactive tool called EnergyVis that allows users to compare energy consumption across locations and against other models. "Sometimes, training machine learning models from end-to-end takes the same amount of energy as a transatlantic flight. Is every organization using machine learning able to budget for such an expense? What if the grid in which a business runs is running on coal versus green energy?" said Omar Shaikh, a computer science undergraduate student.

As my family can attest, admitting when I am wrong has never been easy for me; but I feel it is important that I share a recent, if rather late, realization I had. Before attending the Techonomy Climate event in March, I didn't fully understand the scope and importance of the climate crisis. I am sharing my experience and perspective in the hopes that I may inspire some of my like-minded peers to grasp not only the urgency of this issue but also the tremendous business opportunities it holds. Like many of my friends and colleagues, my sense of purpose has always lain with the protection and prosperity of my family, friends and employees. I think this worldview is both natural and understandable.

They call it the "lights out factory." A manufacturing complex run by the Japanese company FANUC, it spans 22 facilities producing 23,000 computer parts each month for companies like Tesla and Apple. The plant runs close to 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Bill de Blasio is the mayor of New York City and a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The complex seems to run so smoothly, it might take a moment to realize that something's missing: human workers. FANUC's factory is 100 percent automated, with robots going "unsupervised" by a human for as many as 30 days at a time.

Microsoft and digital energy management and automation solution provider Schneider Electric have partnered to launch AI for Green Energy, a new accelerator programme for Microsoft's AI Factory. Through the programme, Microsoft and Schneider will help start-ups use artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the energy sector in Europe, decreasing consumption and increasing energy efficiency. These entrepreneurs will be able to learn from the technical and business expertise of the two companies during a three-month acceleration period. "We are delighted to leverage our ecosystem of partners to serve the most important causes to society, thanks to the start-ups of tomorrow," said Agnès Van de Walle, director of Microsoft's One Commercial Partner group. "Schneider Electric will bring in-depth expertise and personalised support, accelerating innovation across the energy sector."

China has 100,000 citizens' DNA records that can be accessed using their face in WeChat, the northern part of the country beats a green energy record, and Baidu's AI lab in Silicon Valley surpasses Harvard and MIT in tumor recognition accuracy. This Week In China Tech stays on top of the most important tech stories coming out of the second fastest growing economy in the world. This week, the Shenzhen Huada Forensic Science and Technology Company announced they are storing DNA from over 100,000 individuals from across China. The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huada Group which was established in 1999, is the world's leading genomics research and development institution. The new DNA database has lots of important applications like helping to identify lost or abandoned children, locating missing persons, identification after natural disasters and lifelong record creation (article in Chinese).

Every day a new blockchain-based ICO investment opportunities are emerging on the market, which is fantastic (as everyone could find something for her/his own taste)) and on the other hand, the question arises as to whether this is just about investing in that ICO and as soon as it starts to trade (appears on a virtual stock exchange) we immediately flip it (we sell bigger prices than we've bought)? The "flipping" itself should have its own a separate post entry because it is directly contributing to the drop of the value of a token issued by our honored and loved ICO. Of course, our selfish human qualities are responsible for everything. But what if we had a smarter artificial intelligence without the human selfishness? What if an Artificial Intelligence whose main objective was to improve human society would have the authority to make investment decisions?