Google blames AI for growing emissions that threaten its climate goals [Video]

Google partly blamed AI for the fact that its carbon pollution continued to grow last year, threatening the search giant’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

“Reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 is an extremely ambitious goal and we know it won’t be easy,” the company acknowledged in its annual sustainability report, released Tuesday.

“Our approach will continue to evolve and will require us to navigate significant uncertainty–including the uncertainty around the future environmental impact of AI, which is complex and difficult to predict.”

The company, which is in the midst of an AI-driven overhaul to core products like its search engine and Google Workspace, saw a 13 percent increase in emissions between 2022 and 2023. Compared to its baseline year of 2019, emissions are up 48 percent.