Sustainable AI - Standards, Current Practices and Recommendations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Sustainability are two most evolving socio-technical areas of today’s world. The potential impacts of AI on the society from sustainability point of view, are of utter importance and demands that AI technologies are developed, deployed and used in a sustainable manner. In this paper, we explore the synergy between AI and sustainability, highlighting the key considerations around the intersection of these two domains. The paper discusses the concept of Sustainable AI and key challenges with it, in detail. It also reviews the emerging methodologies and standards in AI and Sustainability, and some of the popular and fast-evolving AI case studies that have significant bearings from sustainability point of view. The paper also identifies the key challenges involved in Sustainable AI and recommends best practices to address those challenges. The paper concludes with a reference architecture with capabilities that can help in implementing those recommendations to realize Sustainable AI with Governance.