AI, Energy & Water: The Real Cost of the Tools We Love | Dr. Kelly Twomey Sanders
Every time you spin up a chatbot, draft with AI, or generate one more image, there's a real-world bill: in electricity, in water, in where the next data center gets built.
But how much of that is actually on you, and how much is baked into the system itself? And how do you tell the genuine concerns apart from the doom-scroll headlines?
Join us for a candid roundtable with Dr. Kelly Twomey Sanders, USC engineering professor and former White House energy advisor, whose research sits squarely at the energy-water-climate nexus.
Kelly will cut through the noise on AI's environmental footprint: what's real, what's overblown, and where the actual leverage sits. Then we'll open the floor to the questions you've been chewing on.
About Kelly:
Dr. Kelly Twomey Sanders is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at USC, where she leads the Sanders' Sustainable Systems Group and holds the Dr. Teh Fu Yen Early Career Chair.
From 2024 to 2025 she served at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Assistant Director for Energy Systems Innovation, advising on AI's electricity demand, grid modernization, and clean energy.
A Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 honoree, she's bringing her firsthand, no-spin perspective to the AI Snack Club community.
Please note this event is only open to AI Snack Club paying members. To join, sign-up here: aisnackclub.com