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Artificial intelligence (AI) is presented as a solution to the greatest challenges of our time, from global pandemics and chronic diseases to cybersecurity threats and the climate crisis. But AI also contributes to the climate crisis by running on technology that depletes scarce resources and by relying on data centres that demand excessive energy use.
Is AI Good for the Planet? brings the climate crisis to the centre of debates around AI, exposing its environmental costs and forcing us to reconsider our understanding of the technology. It reveals why we should no longer ignore the environmental problems generated by AI. Embracing a green agenda for AI that puts the climate crisis at centre stage is our urgent priority.
Engaging and passionately written, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of AI, environmental studies, politics, and media studies and for anyone interested in the connections between technology and the environment.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One
Defining AI: beyond the Hype
Chapter Two
Controlling AI: understanding data capitalism
Chapter Three
Why AI worsens the Climate Crisis
Conclusion
AI and the Climate Crisis: what we can do about it
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Benedetta Brevini is a journalist and Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney.
Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is presented as a solution to the greatest challenges of our time, from global pandemics and chronic diseases to cybersecurity threats and the climate crisis. But AI also contributes to the climate crisis by running on technology that depletes scarce resources and by relying on data centres that demand excessive energy use.
Is AI Good for the Planet? brings the climate crisis to the centre of debates around AI, exposing its environmental costs and forcing us to reconsider our understanding of the technology. It reveals why we should no longer ignore the environmental problems generated by AI. Embracing a green agenda for AI that puts the climate crisis at centre stage is our urgent priority.
Engaging and passionately written, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of AI, environmental studies, politics, and media studies and for anyone interested in the connections between technology and the environment.
Report
"Benedetta Brevini lays out the risks posed to our planet by a headlong and indiscriminate embrace of AI, and what we can do to manage them. I urge you to read this essential book."
Michael E. Mann, author of The New Climate War
"Bold, perceptive, and urgently topical, Is AI Good for the Planet? both informs and inspires."
Frank Pasquale, author of New Laws of Robotics
"[T]he book may serve as a spark for public discourse and an urgent call to action for more research, policy action and public advocacy on this subject. Given its brevity and its non-technical, opinionated and engaging writing style, it is well-positioned to achieve this aim."
Prometheus
