AI, climate, data and energy
Addressing AI, understanding its ability to support climate action and other challenges, learning about the data that informs the models and thinking through the energy required to power them are burning issues for boards. Non-executive directors will be thinking about these issues in the context of cutting emissions, alongside crucial business considerations such as capex, supply chains, products, markets and their fiduciary duty generally. It is therefore valuable for boards to think hard about their companies’ objectives in using AI, the value it delivers and its repercussions.
AI: great hope for business and governance challenge for boards
An audience including FTSE350 board members and Chairs enjoyed the first instalment of a new Chapter Zero ‘in conversation’ event series focused on future-facing challenges for boards. This event, centred on the artificial intelligence (AI)/sustainability nexus, saw Emily Chien, Executive Fellow, Harvard Business School, discuss with Chapter Zero CEO, Vicky Moffatt, the challenge for boards in governing AI while simultaneously harnessing its huge potential as a business (and board) enabler.
AI: great hope for business and governance challenge for boards
Sustainability and AI: what boards must decide now
How should boards think about sustainability and AI? Noela Nakos, Chapter Zero member and former Google Director, and Patricia Rodrigues Jenner, Chapter Zero Fellow, Global Non-executive Board Director and co-Chair of InfraNEDs, recommend that boards should do their research, understand what they can about the role of AI in the future, and what that means for Scope 3 reporting and their corporate ecosystem generally. Boards must think carefully about their fiduciary duty, their companies’ objectives in using AI and consider energy use.
Sustainability and AI: what boards must decide now