Meeting report on ITU-T FG-AI4EE-ICT applications using artificial intelligence in climate change countermeasures and their standardization trends

Although emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, are expected to improve service availability and work efficiency in various fields, they consume a large amount of energy during data collection from many sensors, learning, and data analysis Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the environmental impact as well as other effects of introducing such technologies A short-term focus group in the International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), Focus Group on Environmental Efficiency for Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies (FG-AI4EE), was established in May 2019 to conduct a preliminary study of the environmental efficiency of AI and other emerging technologies and held its first meeting in December 2019 This article describes not only what FG-AI4EE is and what was discussed at its first meeting but also how NTT has been working on environmental issues based on the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN), including the response to crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic © 2020 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp All rights reserved