Can AI affect climate change? - The Hill
Can AI affect climate change? | The Hill
In a Wednesday letter to President Biden, the groups highlighted two main concerns:
- How generative AI tools may amplify the spread of false information about climate change
- And how the “enormous energy requirements and widespread use of large language models can increase carbon emissions.”
Biden signed wide-ranging executive order on AI in October.
The order included new standards for safety and directs federal agencies to accelerate the development of techniques in order to allow AI systems to be trained while preserving privacy.
The advocates wrote they were “disappointed that AI’s potential to worsen the climate change crisis” was not addressed as a risk associated with widespread use of AI in the executive order.
“Unfounded hype from Silicon Valley says that AI can save the planet sometime in the future but research shows the opposite is actually occurring right now,” the groups wrote.
The letter also comes as Vice President Harris joined world leaders earlier this week in Dubai for COP28, the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”