A recent study published in the journal Npj Climate Action highlights a concerning link between artificial intelligence (AI) and the fossil fuel industry. While AI is widely recognized for its power to process vast amounts of data, the study reveals that it also plays a significant role in helping oil and gas companies extract more fossil fuels more efficiently. This increased extraction, according to the research, could lead to significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions—up to 13.3 times greater than the emissions from the electricity used by data centers. The concept of "enabled emissions" introduced in the study refers to emissions that are either directly caused or indirectly amplified by the use of AI in the fossil fuel sector. AI technologies are being used by oil and gas firms to analyze seismic data, locate oil and gas deposits, model underground structures, and optimize drilling, refining, and transportation processes. These capabilities can lead to increased production, which in turn raises emissions. The study, led by former Microsoft employees and other researchers, used data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and a global economic model called GTAP-E-Power to estimate how AI might amplify emissions in the fossil fuel sector. Experts in the field, like Laure Alfonsi from the GreenIT collective, note that the AI systems used in the fossil fuel industry are different from consumer-facing tools like ChatGPT. These are specialized AI models trained on machine learning and deep learning to handle complex geological data. Generative AI is also beginning to integrate into these systems, helping automate tasks and speed up analysis for geologists and engineers. Laure Alfonsi cautions that while the study provides a useful estimate, it may not fully capture the environmental impact. She points out that factors such as water use, pollution, and the environmental cost of producing AI hardware are not included. Similarly, Maksym Chepeliev, an economist at Purdue University, notes that the comparison to data center electricity use is meant to provide a general sense of scale, not an exact measurement. Tech companies like Microsoft and TotalEnergies, both of which have partnerships with fossil fuel producers, have been contacted about their involvement. Microsoft, which has expanded its partnerships with oil and gas firms, declined to comment despite its public commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. TotalEnergies, which collaborates with Microsoft, Google Cloud, AWS, and Nvidia, stated that AI is used to improve safety and efficiency but provided only vague statements about its environmental impact without specific data. The study's authors and members of the GreenIT collective, including Auban Derreumaux, are calling for greater transparency from tech companies. Derreumaux, who has studied the environmental and health impacts of AI, argues that tech firms should be as open about the emissions linked to their AI services as banks are about the projects they fund. He believes that these companies already have the tools to measure some of these emissions and should be held accountable for their environmental impact.