arXiv:2509.13001cs.IR2025-09中稿 · ACM TORS被引 7

对比深挖与传统推荐模型碳排放,发现前者高42倍

Green Recommender Systems: Understanding and Minimizing the Carbon Footprint of AI-Powered Personalization

  • 复现2013与2023年推荐系统实验流程,实测能耗并换算为碳排
  • 深度学习模型平均产生2909公斤二氧化碳当量,是传统模型的42倍
  • 提出绿色推荐系统设计指南,适合关注可持续AI的研究者

随着全球变暖加剧,评估和降低推荐系统环境影响变得日益紧迫。然而,推荐系统领域对此几乎缺乏认知、应对与评估。本研究通过复现典型实验流程,分析推荐系统研究的环境影响。涵盖2013与2023年ACM RecSys会议共79篇论文,对比传统“老式AI”模型与现代深度学习模型。我们设计并重现代表性实验流程,使用硬件能表测量能耗,并转换为二氧化碳当量。结果表明,采用深度学习模型的论文碳排放约是传统模型的42倍。单篇深度学习论文平均产生2,909公斤二氧化碳当量,超过一人从纽约飞往墨尔本的碳排放,或一棵树260年固碳量。该工作强调推荐系统与更广泛机器学习社区亟需采纳绿色AI原则,平衡算法进步与环境责任,以实现可持续的人工智能个性化未来。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

As global warming soars, the need to assess and reduce the environmental impact of recommender systems is becoming increasingly urgent. Despite this, the recommender systems community hardly understands, addresses, and evaluates the environmental impact of their work. In this study, we examine the environmental impact of recommender systems research by reproducing typical experimental pipelines. Based on our results, we provide guidelines for researchers and practitioners on how to minimize the environmental footprint of their work and implement green recommender systems - recommender systems designed to minimize their energy consumption and carbon footprint. Our analysis covers 79 papers from the 2013 and 2023 ACM RecSys conferences, comparing traditional "good old-fashioned AI" models with modern deep learning models. We designed and reproduced representative experimental pipelines for both years, measuring energy consumption using a hardware energy meter and converting it into CO2 equivalents. Our results show that papers utilizing deep learning models emit approximately 42 times more CO2 equivalents than papers using traditional models. On average, a single deep learning-based paper generates 2,909 kilograms of CO2 equivalents - more than the carbon emissions of a person flying from New York City to Melbourne or the amount of CO2 sequestered by one tree over 260 years. This work underscores the urgent need for the recommender systems and wider machine learning communities to adopt green AI principles, balancing algorithmic advancements and environmental responsibility to build a sustainable future with AI-powered personalization.

绿色AI推荐系统碳足迹可持续计算

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