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Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu criticizes tech giants for abandoning sustainability in the AI race, calling it 'virtue-signaling.' He highlights rising electricity costs due to AI data centers in the US, contrasting it with India's necessity for an energy-efficient AI approach. Vembu believes this sustainable path is achievable, viewing climate change as a harmony issue, not political.
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu recently took a jab at Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants saying that they have abandoned sustainability claims amid rapid scaling of artificial intelligence (AI).
Sharing a post on X, Sridhar Vembu wrote “sustainability has disappeared from the Big tech vocabulary in the rush to AI, and that tells you how much conviction they had about climate change.
It was always part of their virtue-signaling, nothing more.” India, on the contrary, has “no option but to seek an energy-efficient, sustainable approach to AI and I believe that is possible,” writes Vembu. The Zoho founder also criticised the AI boom’s rising power demands, commenting on rising electricity prices due to AI data centers in the US.
He quoted Microsoft’s recent five-point plan to address growing public anger over AI data centers. At an event in Washington, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced “Our data centre won’t lead to an increase in your electricity prices if you are a neighbour in the community”.“We cannot protect against all sources of inflation, but we can definitely ensure that our data centre, the one that we build and own and operate, doesn’t lead to a price increase that you will see in your electricity bill,” he added.
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu’s full post
In the X post, Vembu wrote:Electricity prices going up due to AI data center construction across America has become a big enough political issue that President Trump is asking Big Tech to be responsible in their data center plans and Microsoft has pledged to cooperate.Meanwhile, sustainability has disappeared from the Big tech vocabulary in the rush to AI, and that tells you how much conviction they had about climate change. It was always part of their virtue-signaling, nothing more.In India, we have no option but to seek an energy-efficient, sustainable approach to AI and I believe that is possible. I don't view climate change as a political issue, but as part of the broader question of how humanity can live in harmony with nature.
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