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SDAIA President: AI Saved 1.5 Billion Liters of Water, Cut Carbon Emissions Equivalent to 1 Million Trees

SDAIA's President spoke at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum 2024 in Riyadh. SPA
SDAIA's President spoke at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum 2024 in Riyadh. SPA
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SDAIA President: AI Saved 1.5 Billion Liters of Water, Cut Carbon Emissions Equivalent to 1 Million Trees

SDAIA's President spoke at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum 2024 in Riyadh. SPA
SDAIA's President spoke at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum 2024 in Riyadh. SPA

Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) President Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi has said that artificial intelligence (AI) has contributed to saving 150 million sheets of paper and conserving 1.5 billion liters of water.

In a speech at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum 2024 held on the sidelines of the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16) in Riyadh, Alghamdi shed light on Wednesday on the role of data and AI in accelerating progress and building a greener and more resilient world.

He highlighted the significant environmental impact resulting from digital transformation and innovation in the field of AI, including reducing carbon-dioxide emissions equivalent to the impact of a million trees, while also saving an average of 20 working days per year for each citizen through digital services.

Alghamdi stated that the planet is facing unprecedented challenges today, from record high temperatures to escalating climate risks that threaten global stability. At such moments, under the leadership of Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the Kingdom is moving forward with insightful vision and determination, leading efforts towards a sustainable future.

He added that the Saudi Green Initiative lies at the heart of transformative efforts, being a comprehensive national strategy comprising over 80 initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions, expanding green spaces, and protecting our environment.

Alghamdi noted that SDAIA is monitoring 4 billion square meters of urban areas in Riyadh through analyzing 540 gigabytes of satellite image data that is updated annually through the Smart C national platform for smart cities as part of the authority’s role as the national reference for data and AI.

The SDAIA president spotlighted key digital services that have contributed to the digital transformation of government services and empowering citizens through various government platforms. He said that the Tawakkalna comprehensive national app serves over 32 million users, successfully handling up to 1 billion interactions daily.

Meanwhile, the unified national access platform Nafath handles over 3 billion digital interactions, leading to about 260,000 daily visits to service centers. The National Platform for Charitable Work "Ehsan" contributes to the implementation of 1,150 environmental projects in partnership with 480 charities, while the government cloud-computing platform Deem integrated 260 data centers, reducing energy consumption by 64 megawatts and eliminating around 600,000 tons of carbon emissions.

Alghamdi highlighted that AI contributed to the development of the renewable energy sector, a significant step supporting the Saudi Vision to achieve its ambitious goal of having 50% of its power generated from renewable sources by 2030.

The SDAIA president invited everyone to join the Kingdom's efforts to preserve a flourishing planet for the good of humanity, emphasizing SDAIA’s commitment to enhancing the utilization of data and AI in collaboration with all stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.

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Technology

Siemens Energy Trebles Profit as AI Boosts Power Demand

FILED - 05 August 2025, Berlin: The "Siemens Energy" logo can be seen in the entrance area of the company. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
FILED - 05 August 2025, Berlin: The "Siemens Energy" logo can be seen in the entrance area of the company. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
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Siemens Energy Trebles Profit as AI Boosts Power Demand

FILED - 05 August 2025, Berlin: The "Siemens Energy" logo can be seen in the entrance area of the company. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
FILED - 05 August 2025, Berlin: The "Siemens Energy" logo can be seen in the entrance area of the company. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa

German turbine maker Siemens Energy said Wednesday that its quarterly profits had almost tripled as the firm gains from surging demand for electricity driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

The company's gas turbines are used to generate electricity for data centers that provide computing power for AI, and have been in hot demand as US tech giants like OpenAI and Meta rapidly build more of the sites.

Net profit in the group's fiscal first quarter, to end-December, climbed to 746 million euros ($889 million) from 252 million euros a year earlier.

Orders -- an indicator of future sales -- increased by a third to 17.6 billion euros.

The company's shares rose over five percent in Frankfurt trading, putting the stock up about a quarter since the start of the year and making it the best performer to date in Germany's blue-chip DAX index.

"Siemens Energy ticked all of the major boxes that investors were looking for with these results," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note, adding that the company's gas turbine orders were "exceptionally strong".

US data center electricity consumption is projected to more than triple by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency, and already accounts for six to eight percent of US electricity use.

Asked about rising orders on an earnings call, Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch said he thought the first-quarter figures were not "particularly strong" and that further growth could be expected.

"Demand for gas turbines is extremely high," he said. "We're talking about 2029 and 2030 for delivery dates."

Siemens Energy, spun out of the broader Siemens group in 2020, said last week that it would spend $1 billion expanding its US operations, including a new equipment plant in Mississippi as part of wider plans that would create 1,500 jobs.

Its shares have increased over tenfold since 2023, when the German government had to provide the firm with credit guarantees after quality problems at its wind-turbine unit.

Technology

Instagram Boss to Testify at Social Media Addiction Trial 

The Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. (Reuters)
The Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. (Reuters)
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Instagram Boss to Testify at Social Media Addiction Trial 

The Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. (Reuters)
The Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken October 27, 2025. (Reuters)

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri is to be called to testify Wednesday in a Los Angeles courtroom by lawyers out to prove social media is dangerously addictive by design to young, vulnerable minds.

YouTube and Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- are defendants in a blockbuster trial that could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.

Rival lawyers made opening remarks to jurors this week, with an attorney for YouTube insisting that the Google-owned video platform was neither intentionally addictive nor technically social media.

"It's not social media addiction when it's not social media and it's not addiction," YouTube lawyer Luis Li told the 12 jurors during his opening remarks.

The civil trial in California state court centers on allegations that a 20-year-old woman, identified as Kaley G.M., suffered severe mental harm after becoming addicted to social media as a child.

She started using YouTube at six and joined Instagram at 11, before moving on to Snapchat and TikTok two or three years later.

The plaintiff "is not addicted to YouTube. You can listen to her own words -- she said so, her doctor said so, her father said so," Li said, citing evidence he said would be detailed at trial.

Li's opening arguments followed remarks on Monday from lawyers for the plaintiffs and co-defendant Meta.

On Monday, the plaintiffs' attorney Mark Lanier told the jury YouTube and Meta both engineer addiction in young people's brains to gain users and profits.

"This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children's brains," Lanier said.

"They don't only build apps; they build traps."

But Li told the six men and six women on the jury that he did not recognize the description of YouTube put forth by the other side and tried to draw a clear line between YouTube's widely popular video app and social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

YouTube is selling "the ability to watch something essentially for free on your computer, on your phone, on your iPad," Li insisted, comparing the service to Netflix or traditional TV.

Li said it was the quality of content that kept users coming back, citing internal company emails that he said showed executives rejecting a pursuit of internet virality in favor of educational and more socially useful content.

- 'Gateway drug' -

Stanford University School of Medicine professor Anna Lembke, the first witness called by the plaintiffs, testified that she views social media, broadly speaking, as a drug.

The part of the brain that acts as a brake when it comes to having another hit is not typically developed before a person is 25 years old, Lembke, the author of the book "Dopamine Nation," told jurors.

"Which is why teenagers will often take risks that they shouldn't and not appreciate future consequences," Lembke testified.

"And typically, the gateway drug is the most easily accessible drug," she said, describing Kaley's first use of YouTube at the age of six.

The case is being treated as a bellwether proceeding whose outcome could set the tone for a wave of similar litigation across the United States.

Social media firms face hundreds of lawsuits accusing them of leading young users to become addicted to content and suffer from depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization, and even suicide.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs are borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies knowingly sold a harmful product.

Technology

OpenAI Starts Testing Ads in ChatGPT

The OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
The OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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OpenAI Starts Testing Ads in ChatGPT

The OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
The OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)

OpenAI has begun placing ads in the basic versions of its ChatGPT chatbot, a bet that users will not mind the interruptions as the company seeks revenue as its costs soar.

"The test will be for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go subscription tiers" in the United States, OpenAI said Monday. The Go subscription costs $8 in the United States.

Only a small percentage of its nearly one billion users pay for its premium subscription services, which will remain ad-free.

"Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you, and we keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers," the company said.

Since ChatGPT's launch in 2022, OpenAI's valuation has soared to $500 billion in funding rounds -- higher than any other private company. Some analysts expect it could go public with a trillion-dollar valuation.

But the ChatGPT maker burns through cash at a furious rate, mostly on the powerful computing required to deliver its services.

Its chief executive Sam Altman had long expressed his dislike for advertising, citing concerns that it could create distrust about ChatGPT's content.

His about-face garnered a jab from its rival Anthropic over the weekend, which made its advertising debut at the Super Bowl championship with commercials saying its Claude chatbot would stay ad-free.