All over the world, data servers hum, consuming both megawatts and precious natural resources to bring life to our digital world. Approximately 8,000 data centers on the planet is the basis of our online existence and with the advent of artificial intelligence will grow to such an extent that research estimates that by 2025 the IT industry could use 20 percent of all electricity produced and emit up to 5.5 percent of the world's carbon emissions. That raises a real — and, for some, increasingly pressing — question about the industry's carbon footprint as startups and companies fall behind the latest advances in Silicon Valley. "Pandora's box is open," said Arun Iyengar, CEO of Untether AI, a highly specialized chip company working to make AI more energy efficient. (Alex PIGMAN)