Quebec, January 28, 2025 – Following a public call for proposals, the governance committee of the Social Justice and Artificial Intelligence Chair - Fondation Abeona / ENS / Obvia / Université Laval is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Sasha Luccioni, Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics researcher and Climate Lead at Hugging Face, as the new chairholder for the coming year.
Each year, the Social Justice and Artificial Intelligence Chair welcomes a leading researcher to carry out research on AI and social justice. By offering a series of seminars and public events, the chair creates a forum for exchanges with researchers from all over the world, with a particular focus on the French and Quebec ecosystems.
Dr. Luccioni’s project, "You can't improve what you don't measure: Developing Standards for Sustainable Artificial Intelligence", targets to document AI's environmental impacts while contributing to the development of new tools and standards to better measure its impact on climate. Through this project, she also aims to create an international and interdisciplinary research community focused on AI's effects on climate.
Sasha Luccioni succeeds the previous chairholders, Professors Anne-Sophie Hulin from the Faculty of Law at the Université de Sherbrooke, Karine Gentelet from the Department of Social Sciences at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), and Kate Crawford from the AI Now Institute in New York.
Citations
“By developing transparent methodologies to assess the environmental impact of AI, we will help ensure that its benefits and costs are distributed more equitably.”
– Anne Bouverot and Tanya Perelmuter, co-founders of the Fondation Abeona
"We are in a brief window where the fundamentals are being explored at the same time as applications are being developed. By analyzing the environmental consequences of AI and helping design new ways to use it, the Abeona Chair will bring together an international and interdisciplinary community of researchers around this issue."
– Frédéric Worms, Director of the École normale supérieure - PSL
"Assessing the environmental impact of AI is essential, as sustainability relies on an ethical approach and our ability to make informed choices to build a sustainable future."
– Lyse Langlois, Executive Director of Obvia
" Measuring AI's environmental impact isn't just a responsibility—it's the compass that ensures innovation that guides us toward a more sustainable future. "
– Sasha Luccioni, AI and Climate Lead at Hugging Face
About Sasha Luccioni
Sasha Luccioni is AI and Climate Lead at Hugging Face, an innovative global company in the field of responsible Open Source AI, where she leads research efforts to enhance the sustainability of AI systems. Sasha Luccioni is also a founding member of Climate Change AI (CCAI) and serves on the board of Women in Machine Learning (WiML), where she organizes events and mentors underrepresented minorities within the AI community.
Her research interests and publications primarily focus on the intersection of AI and the environment. Her expertise has been recognized in numerous media outlets, such as MIT Technology Review, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal, for both her projects on the environmental impact of AI and her initiatives to reduce it. Sasha Luccioni has been a member of Obvia since January 2021.
About the Research Project
The environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is still unclear, but it is evident that its computational needs are increasing the burden on data centers, thereby raising their overall energy consumption, a large portion of which comes from non-renewable sources.
With the recent emergence of large, increasingly complex language models, the digital divide in AI continues to widen, as more computational power and human expertise are required to train and deploy AI systems. Despite this significant growth, it remains difficult to obtain accurate figures on AI's environmental impacts.
While some research and documentation on the environmental impacts of AI currently exist, the nature and extent of these effects are underexplored, ranging from embedded and induced emissions to rebound effects due to increased usage. The proposed project aims to develop new approaches for assessing the environmental impacts of AI models through three main components: (1) tools; (2) research and development; and (3) community building.
About the Social Justice and AI Chair
The Social Justice and Artificial Intelligence Chair - Fondation Abeona / ENS / Obvia / Université Laval is a research chair that allows a visiting professor to conduct work related to this theme for one year. The chairholder also has the opportunity to engage with researchers from the Parisian and Quebec ecosystems in the fields of AI, humanities and social sciences, and health.
Partners of the Chair
Committed to responsible AI, the Fondation Abeona promotes collective intelligence on a global scale, serving citizens, businesses, and public policymakers to chart the path toward a sustainable and inclusive digital transition.
The École normale supérieure – PSL is a world-class higher education and research institution that trains over 2,000 students, including 600 doctoral students and 200 postdoctoral researchers, for careers in scientific research, higher and secondary education, as well as in public administration, local governments, public institutions, and businesses. Widely open to international collaboration, with 15 departments, 31 research units, and more than a hundred research teams covering a wide range of disciplines, from the humanities and social sciences to life and material sciences, the École normale supérieure is regularly recognized for its excellence, boasting 14 Nobel Prizes and 10 Fields Medals. ENS is committed to developing partnerships with institutions that promote equal opportunity.
Obvia – The International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI and Digital Technologies is an inter-university network of over 240 researchers and numerous partners in Quebec and internationally. Its mission is to identify the societal issues related to artificial intelligence and digital technologies, and to contribute to solutions that place living beings and the biosphere at the center of their development and usage cycles. Obvia’s research community produces open knowledge that strengthens individual and collective capacities, in collaboration with civil society, public actors, industry, and developers. www.obvia.ca
Université Laval is a renowned institution recognized for its international openness and its leadership role within the Francophonie, a position it has held for over 350 years. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral programs, distinguishing itself as a major player in the scientific, educational, and societal fields. The university is committed to maintaining a high level of excellence in its teaching and research activities and developing strategic partnerships both locally and internationally. Located in the heart of Quebec City, it is a key pillar of the regional academic ecosystem. www.ulaval.ca
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