Talk by Sebastian Schrittwieser and Andreas Ekelhart on AI and Sustainability
Sebastian Schrittwieser, key researcher at SBA Research, and Andreas Ekelhart, part of the SBA management and key researcher at SBA Research, gave a presentation on “AI and Sustainability” for the AI Forum for Administration at the University of Vienna on April 16.
© Niklas Schnaubelt
They talked about generative AI models like OpenAI’s GPT which deliver impressive results, but every response comes at a real energy cost. Training and operating these large language models require massive amounts of electricity, specialized hardware, and cooling.
This presentation gave a clear overview of the hidden resource demands behind AI: from the energy consumed during training to the electricity used for each user query, including carbon emissions and water usage at scale. It also compared cloud-based APIs with self-hosted open-source models, looking at costs, performance, scalability, and environmental impact. The goal was to provide a realistic picture of AI’s resource footprint and practical options for using it more responsibly.