Can AI actually help solve the climate crisis? Some experts challenge the idea
Prominent claims that artificial intelligence can help solve climate change are misguided, a coalition of environmental groups has recently stressed, arguing that the technology is likely to instead cause rising energy use and boost the spread of climate disinformation.
AI has been touted by big tech companies as a method to address global heating, through tools that help track deforestation and extreme natural events and identify pollution leaks. In fact, it is already being used to predict droughts and measure changes to melting icebergs.
Google has been at the forefront of promoting emissions reductions via AI adoption, releasing a report in 2023 that highlighted the technology’s potential to cut emissions by as much as 10%, equivalent to the entire carbon pollution put out by the EU by 2030.
“We shouldn’t be believing this hype,” experts stress
“AI has a really major role in addressing climate change,” said Kate Brandt, Google’s chief sustainability officer, in December. But a recent report by green groups has cast serious doubts over the AI revolution’s potential positive impact on the pressing climate crisis.
“We seem to be hearing all the time that AI can save the planet, but we shouldn’t be believing this hype,” said Michael Khoo, climate disinformation program director at Friends of the Earth – part of the Climate Action against Disinformation coalition that put out the report.
The increasing electricity demands of AI indicate that a doubling of data centres to help meet the pace of the industry is expected to cause and 80% rise in emissions, even if there are measures to make these centres more energy efficient, according to the report.
Separate research has found that in just three years from today, AI servers could be consuming as much energy as Sweden does. Sadly in the US, there is evidence that the life of coal-fired power plants is being prolonged to address the rising energy demands of artificial intelligence.
Need for better transparency about AI energy use
The coalition report also highlighted that the technology is likely to further hinder efforts to constrain the climate emergency by offering people or organisations an easier way to proliferate false or misleading statements about climate science.
The experts have stressed the need for better transparency about AI energy use, besides safeguards that monitor the output of climate falsehoods. The report has come against a backdrop of intensifying climate change-led events across the globe.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service recently confirmed last month as the hottest February on record, just a short time after confirming 2023 as the hottest year ever. It’s no doubt that climate change has turned into one of the biggest threats to humanity.
