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Artificial intelligence was supposed to accelerate the transition to clean energy. Instead, it’s being used to keep fossil fuels alive.
Inside Microsoft, two engineers began asking questions no one wanted to answer. Holly and Will Alpine had joined the company believing AI could help solve the climate crisis. What they found instead was code trained to keep oil flowing.
Through internal documents and contracts, they traced how Microsoft’s cloud tools — Azure, Cognitive Services, machine learning models — were being deployed across the oil and gas sector. Predicting drill sites. Extending refinery life cycles. Cutting extraction costs.
The same AI designed for sustainability was fueling expansion.
This isn’t a story about a single company. It’s about the moral architecture of the tech industry — how systems built for optimization erase responsibility. Holly and Will’s decision to speak out exposes a simple, devastating truth: the future isn’t being delayed by ignorance, but by intelligence used in service of the past.
Please enjoy the show.
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LINKS & RESOURCES
- Microsoft's Commitment to Sustainability
- Exxon & Microsoft partnership press release
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Timestamps
(00:00) The Hidden Climate Cost of AI
(01:44) Why Experts Call AI an Existential Threat
(03:34) How Big Oil Uses AI to Pump More Fossil Fuels
(07:46) Why Two Microsoft Insiders Started Enabled Emissions
(11:14) Inside AI’s Growing Role in the Energy Sector
(13:08) How much CO₂ comes from burning oil, and what does AI add?
(16:17) The Guardrails Needed to Stop AI From Fueling Emissions
(19:34) Microsoft’s Energy Principles: Policy or PR?
(21:58) What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions — and why do they matter?
(24:26) How does Big Tech’s AI partnership with Big Oil affect Net Zero?
(29:55) Why do we need international policy to regulate AI in energy?
(32:39) AI for Good vs. AI for Fossil Fuels
(34:14) What should humans be?
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