Exploring the AI energy crisis: Leeds Digital Festival 2025
On 25th September, we were delighted to host an event as part of Leeds Digital Festival ’s 10th anniversary celebrations, a two-week programme showcasing innovation, collaboration and creativity across the city’s thriving digital community.
The film takes a closer look at one of technology’s most urgent challenges, the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence and data. Both inspiring and sobering, it highlights the duality of AI: its enormous potential to transform the way we live and work, and the equally significant risks it poses to our planet if left unchecked.
Following the screening, we welcomed an expert panel to reflect on the film and debate its themes:
* Vinny Leach, Portfolio Delivery Manager at Avanade
* Heather Dawe, Chief Data Scientist, UK and Head of Responsible AI at UST
* Arash Rabbani, Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Leeds
Together, they brought perspectives spanning industry, academia and responsible AI practice.
Sustainability versus profit
One of the central questions raised during the discussion was:
Are we, as individuals and organisations, truly prioritising the environmental impact of AI, or are we too focused on the profit margins it promises?
This prompted a rich debate. Some argued that the drive for commercial gain too often overshadows the urgent need to address sustainability, while others highlighted the potential for businesses to align profit with positive impact, provided they embed sustainability into their innovation strategies from the outset.
The call for regulation and frameworks
Another recurring theme was the pressing need for regulation. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, the panel stressed that without a robust framework to govern its development and deployment, the environmental and ethical risks will only deepen. True progress, they argued, requires collaboration between industry, academia and government to establish clear guardrails and hold organisations accountable.
A moment of reflection
As the credits rolled and the conversation continued, it was clear that the event had done more than just spark dialogue — it had left attendees with important questions to carry back into their own organisations.
For many of us, one question lingered above all: Are we doing enough, quickly enough, to ensure that AI is not only innovative and profitable, but also ethical and sustainable?
Thank you
A huge thank you to Leeds Digital Festival for welcoming us as part of their milestone 10th anniversary edition, and to everyone who joined us for the session. Most of all, we’d like to thank our brilliant panellists for sharing their insight and sparking such a thought-provoking discussion.
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