Big Data and AI are poised to transform virtually every industry.
Fueled by data from tens of billions of edge devices and emerging 5G networks, cloud computing and AI have the potential to generate new insights that can help address climate change and improve people’s lives.
At the same time, there are questions about the environmental impact of digitalization, particularly the energy consumed by data centers and the computing resources needed to train powerful AI models.
Without improvements in technology, will Big Data and AI add to the world’s challenges? Or can digitalization bend the climate curve? What actions can the semiconductor and computing industry take to improve efficiency and consume fewer resources?
Addressing these issues and more will be keynotes and a panel presented by Applied Materials at the 50th annual SEMICON West on July 21, which will be held in a virtual format this year.
9:15 – 9:45 a.m. PT: Al Gore in conversation with Heather Clancy, editorial director of GreenBiz.com. Gore will share his thoughts on the global challenges our industry can help solve by driving advances in the latest cutting-edge technologies, especially by increasing the energy efficiency of semiconductors and computing.
9:45 – 10:15 a.m. PT: Keynote by Applied Materials President and CEO, Gary Dickerson, who will highlight the need for sustainable AI and discuss actions that can be taken by companies throughout the semiconductor industry, both individually and collectively, to enable a better future.
10:15 – 11:00 a.m. PT: Panel moderated by Dr. Eric Masanet, professor and Mellichamp chair of Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies at UC Santa Barbara and a lead author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report.
Dr. Masanet will lead a discussion entitled, “Bending the Climate Curve: Enabling Sustainable Growth of Big Data, AI and Cloud Computing,” featuring experts spanning the industry ecosystem, from Systems to Materials:
- Dr. Rob Aitken, R&D fellow, Arm;
- Dr. Samantha Alt, Cloud Solution architect, Intel;
- Dr. Nicola Peill-Moelter, director of Sustainability Innovation, VMware;
- Moe Tanabian, GM – Intelligent Devices, Microsoft;
- Ellie Yieh, VP of Advanced Product Technology Development, Applied Materials;
- Dr. Cliff Young, software engineer, Google
