AI Burns Energy. But Could It Save Even More?

WSJ Tech News Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Tech News

4.3 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One big drawback of generative artificial intelligence is the vast energy and water that data centers use to power it. But AI also promises to save energy and fuel across industries such as transportation, manufacturing and building maintenance. Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab at New York University, tells us how AI could save as much energy as it uses—or more. Plus, WSJ reporter Sebastian Herrera discusses how layoffs of tech workers are affecting Seattle. Peter Champelli hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Boardrooms love buzzwords.
0:02.0	AI, climate, resilience.
0:03.8	But what do they actually mean for CFOs and execs trying to survive the next earnings call?
0:08.3	That's where the pre-read comes in.
0:09.9	Real experts and real talk.
0:11.7	Subscribe to the pre-read.
0:13.2	Presented by Workieva.
0:19.3	Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, September 30th. I'm Peter Champelli for the Wall Street Journal.
0:25.7	A coffee shop in Seattle is getting more and more job applications from former tech workers.
0:31.6	It's a sign of the times, after some of the biggest tech employers there have cut workers and added fewer new positions.
0:38.5	We'll get into what that shift means for the city and other tech hubs like Seattle.
0:42.7	Then, the data centers that make AI work use a ton of energy and water and produce a lot
0:48.0	of greenhouse gases.
0:50.0	But research professor Amy Myers-Jafee says it could also save energy and fuel across a bunch of sectors.
0:56.1	We'll explain how.
1:00.9	But first, Seattle has been one of the premier tech hubs in the U.S.
1:05.9	But the sector has been rocked by layoffs in the past few years, led by companies like Amazon and Microsoft.
1:12.7	And there's now another change coming to Amazon's workforce. The company is the largest sponsor
1:17.7	of H-1B visas in the U.S., with more than 14,000 of its employees approved for the visa in 2025.
1:24.4	And earlier this month, Trump announced changes to the visa program, imposing a $100,000 fee for
1:29.8	visa holders or their sponsors.
1:32.1	Reporter Sebastian Herrera is here to tell us more about what layoffs by those big tech giants
	...

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