Estimating the Sustainability of AI Models Based on Theoretical Models and Experimental Data

As AI models become more and more common in business and even in our daily lives, it is important to understand what the carbon impact of these models is. Recent papers have shown that this impact can be quite great, i.e., the training of a single high-end model can result in emissions of more than 500t of CO2eq. In this paper we discuss the factors that influence the carbon footprint of AI models, explore what impact different decisions have, and show how the footprint can be reduced. We also examine the footprint of different models to give a guideline on how urgent action is for different organizations.