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New Report: The AI Threats to Climate Change
Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2024, 03:18 PM - Edit history (1)
https://foe.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AI_Climate_Disinfo_v4_030124.pdf
1. Executive Summary
Silicon Valley and Wall Street love to hype artificial intelligence (AI). The more it’s used, they say, the more diseases we’ll cure, the fewer errors we’ll make—and the lower emissions will go. Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind claimed “advances in AGI [artificial generative intelligence] research will supercharge society’s ability to tackle and manage climate change.” At COP28 last year, Google released a new report proclaiming 5-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions could be mitigated by the use of AI.
But there are two significant and immediate dangers posed by AI that are much less discussed: 1) the vast increase in energy and water consumption required by AI systems like ChatGPT; and 2) the threat of AI turbocharging disinformation—on a topic already rife with anti-science lies and funded by fossil fuel companies and their networks.First, the industry now acknowledges AI will require massive amounts of energy and water. In 2023, Alphabet/Google’s chairman said that each new AI search query requires 10 times the energy costs of a traditional Google search7 OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman conceded in 2024 that AI will use vastly more energy than people expected. On an industry-wide level, the International Energy Agency estimates the energy use from data centers that power AI will double in just the next two years, consuming as much energy as Japan. These data centers and AI systems also use large amounts of water in operations and are often located in areas that already face water shortages.
Such statistics are only estimates, because AI companies continue to withhold most of the data. Transparent reporting would allow researchers to know if the use of AI systems offset any potential savings. For example, if the AI industry improves data center energy efficiency by 10% but also doubling the number of data centers, it would lead to an 80% increase in global carbon emissions.
Second, AI will help spread climate disinformation. This will allow climate deniers to more easily, cheaply and rapidly develop persuasive false content and spread it across social media, targeted advertising and search engines. The World Economic Forum in 2024 identified AI-generated mis- and disinformation as the world’s greatest threat (followed by climate change), saying “large-scale AI models have already enabled an explosion in falsified information.” The world is already seeing how AI is being used for political disinformation campaigns. In September 2023, elections in Slovakia were marred by AI-generated content. In the January 2024 New Hampshire primary, AI-generated fake Biden robocalls were used in an attempt to suppress voter participation.
…
Silicon Valley and Wall Street love to hype artificial intelligence (AI). The more it’s used, they say, the more diseases we’ll cure, the fewer errors we’ll make—and the lower emissions will go. Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind claimed “advances in AGI [artificial generative intelligence] research will supercharge society’s ability to tackle and manage climate change.” At COP28 last year, Google released a new report proclaiming 5-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions could be mitigated by the use of AI.
But there are two significant and immediate dangers posed by AI that are much less discussed: 1) the vast increase in energy and water consumption required by AI systems like ChatGPT; and 2) the threat of AI turbocharging disinformation—on a topic already rife with anti-science lies and funded by fossil fuel companies and their networks.First, the industry now acknowledges AI will require massive amounts of energy and water. In 2023, Alphabet/Google’s chairman said that each new AI search query requires 10 times the energy costs of a traditional Google search7 OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman conceded in 2024 that AI will use vastly more energy than people expected. On an industry-wide level, the International Energy Agency estimates the energy use from data centers that power AI will double in just the next two years, consuming as much energy as Japan. These data centers and AI systems also use large amounts of water in operations and are often located in areas that already face water shortages.
Such statistics are only estimates, because AI companies continue to withhold most of the data. Transparent reporting would allow researchers to know if the use of AI systems offset any potential savings. For example, if the AI industry improves data center energy efficiency by 10% but also doubling the number of data centers, it would lead to an 80% increase in global carbon emissions.
Second, AI will help spread climate disinformation. This will allow climate deniers to more easily, cheaply and rapidly develop persuasive false content and spread it across social media, targeted advertising and search engines. The World Economic Forum in 2024 identified AI-generated mis- and disinformation as the world’s greatest threat (followed by climate change), saying “large-scale AI models have already enabled an explosion in falsified information.” The world is already seeing how AI is being used for political disinformation campaigns. In September 2023, elections in Slovakia were marred by AI-generated content. In the January 2024 New Hampshire primary, AI-generated fake Biden robocalls were used in an attempt to suppress voter participation.
…