A few weeks ago, someone on LinkedIn wrote “with AI, the sky is the limit”. I respectfully disagree.
I agree that AI is amazing. Its possibilities seem limitless. But AI does not exist in a vacuum. It exists on our planet. The said planet has boundaries. Scientists have assessed 9 planetary boundaries, 6 of them are crossed.
Using and developing AI is an issue for 5 of these boundaries:
- Climate change. To power AI data-centers, we need energy, which often comes from burning fossil fuels. Building data-centers also generates carbon emissions, along with building servers and GPUs.
- Land-system change when pouring concrete to build data-centers, factories, power plants and roads to connect them together.
- Novel entities and pollution with chemicals when building all of this.
- Freshwater use when manufacturing silicon chips (TSMC consumes 100 million metric tons of water per year) and to cool down data-centers.
- Biodiversity integrity as a result of the factors above.
It’s a fact: our planet is in a bad shape and it’s been getting worse over time.
Accelerating AI may sound exciting but it’s also is accelerating destruction of life. Which is very annoying as I’m very impressed by AI, like many people!
We need to put our heads up and look at the pollution we’re creating. Look at the quickly approaching wall.
So, what do we do: turn the wheel and slow down, or stay hypnotized by impressive gadgets?
Keep playing with ChatGPT or look a the Los Angeles megafires?
