GoKawiilMIT Technology Review names young innovators tackling AI energy use and lithium supply
MIT Technology Review's latest list of under-35 innovators highlights researchers and founders working on climate tech, including Jae-Won Chung's software for measuring AI models' energy consumption, Jing Wei's AI-based pollution tracking, and Zhonghua Zheng's city-specific climate models. The list also features Mohammad Alkhadra of Lithios and Benjamin Mowbray of Rock Zero, two startups developing faster, cheaper methods to extract lithium from brine and hardrock ore respectively.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
As AI adoption grows, understanding and reducing its energy footprint becomes essential to prevent climate tech gains from being offset by rising computing demands. Meanwhile, looming shortages of lithium and other critical minerals could bottleneck the shift to electric vehicles and grid storage, making new extraction methods a key piece of the clean energy transition.
- Researchers are building tools to measure and reduce AI's energy consumption.
- AI is also being used to improve pollution tracking and urban climate modeling.
- Startups like Lithios and Rock Zero aim to make lithium extraction faster and cheaper amid looming supply constraints.
Source: technologyreview.com — Casey Crownhart, 2026-09-17
Published there as: “Meet the innovators under 35 shaping climate tech”
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