Can Tech Save the Planet? A Conversation with Meta’s Former CTO

As I sat down to write this article, I couldn’t help but think of the countless times I’ve heard the phrase “tech will save us” in reference to the climate crisis. But can it really? I decided to dive into this question by exploring the thoughts of Meta’s former CTO, who has recently turned his attention to investing in green technologies.

The “Green Discount”

In a recent interview, Meta’s former CTO mentioned the concept of a “green discount,” which reminded me of Bill Gates’ “green premium” idea. The idea is that by investing heavily in climate technologies, we can reduce the cost difference between green and non-green products over time. But what about products like green steel and green cement, which are currently more expensive than their non-green counterparts? Does this mean that we shouldn’t invest in these areas, or is it just a matter of hoping that costs will come down over time?

Green technology is becoming increasingly important in the fight against climate change.

The Role of Technology

Technology takes time to develop, and no new technology is immediately better, faster, or cheaper. However, over the course of a company’s life cycle – five to ten years – I have to assume that we’ll be able to be competitive on a large scale or have a cost advantage over alternatives. This means that we only invest in things that we believe can be cost-competitive or have some other decisive additional benefit. That’s why I’ve kept my philanthropic work very separate from my investment work.

The Tension Between Energy Consumption and Climate Goals

Given my recent work as the head of technology and AI efforts at Meta, I’m curious about the potential tension between the energy consumption of AI and the goals of clean energy and climate protection. What do companies need to do to achieve their own climate goals when the energy demands of data centers are increasing?

Data centers are a significant contributor to energy consumption, but can also be a key part of the solution.

The Importance of Open-Source Technology

AI is a foundational technology that can bring many benefits in the future. One of the reasons I still work with Meta is that a large part of my work is on Llama, our open-source model, which enables many different people in the industry to use this technology. I think that opening up foundational technologies is one way to move humanity forward faster and bring more people to prosperity, and that’s what’s important to me.

The Need for Efficiency

When it comes to energy consumption, I think we should use AI as quickly as possible because I think it’s good.

In my time at Meta, we often achieved improvements of several orders of magnitude in efficiency or energy consumption. I believe that the industry is currently trying to build the best it can, which consumes a lot of power and energy. If we get to a point where this becomes a big problem and we really need to optimize it from an efficiency perspective, there are many levers we can use.

The Bigger Picture

And whether or not we have AI, if we want to electrify everything and get rid of all fossil fuels, we simply need to bring a huge amount of clean energy into the grid. This problem exists regardless of whether we have AI or not. So, I think the problem is being overstated while the real game is: how can we bring dozens of gigawatts of clean energy into the grid as quickly as possible every year? How can we create more solar energy, more wind energy, and more storage options? Can we get fusion going? For me, these are the humanitarian turning points. They are the basis for many other things.

Solar energy is just one of the many ways we can bring clean energy into the grid.

Conclusion

As I finished writing this article, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hope. While there are certainly challenges ahead, I believe that technology can play a significant role in saving the planet. By investing in green technologies, increasing efficiency, and bringing clean energy into the grid, we can make a real difference. And who knows, maybe one day we’ll look back on this moment as a turning point in the fight against climate change.