As wildfires scorch the landscape, glaciers melt at an alarming rate, and biodiversity collapses, our planet teeters on the edge of ecological disaster. Climate change is no longer a looming threat; it’s our lived reality. In the face of this, humanity’s response seems misguided, to say the least. Instead of diverting resources toward slowing down this impending doom, we are pouring billions into artificial intelligence (AI) — technology that may end up speeding our demise.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not entirely against AI. The technology has valuable applications and can make a real difference in the right contexts. The issue lies in its overuse, especially in areas where it’s unnecessary or even counterproductive.
The State of Our Planet: A Collapsing Ecosystem
Let’s start with the facts. We are witnessing the irreversible transformation of our environment. Record-high carbon emissions, rampant deforestation, collapsing ecosystems, and the disappearance of species at unprecedented rates. The latest IPCC reports read like apocalyptic novels, but instead of heeding these warnings, we find ourselves on a technology binge.
Yes, AI is powerful. It has the potential to revolutionize healthcare, make transportation safer, and optimize energy consumption — in theory. But in practice? The same algorithms that are being hailed as humanity’s saviors are already exacerbating inequality, fueling mass surveillance, and being used to extract even more value from a planet that’s on the brink of collapse.
Billions into AI: A Misguided Focus?
Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, along with a slew of startups, are pouring billions into AI research. According to one estimate, global investment in AI will reach nearly $500 billion by 2024. This is happening while environmental initiatives, like those aimed at preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, or supporting sustainable development, are woefully underfunded.
AI’s promise of optimization and efficiency sounds great on paper, but is it really addressing the root problems? In a world where the environment is in freefall, investing in technologies that optimize the extraction and consumption of natural resources isn’t a solution. It’s an accelerant.
Take, for instance, AI-powered agriculture. Yes, it promises to “feed the world” by making farming more efficient. But many of these AI systems are part of the same industrial-scale farming complex that has contributed to the degradation of soil, deforestation, and mass pesticide use. A more sustainable, localized approach to agriculture doesn’t get nearly as much attention.
Energy Demands: AI’s Dirty Footprint
One of the dirty secrets of AI is its massive energy consumption. Training large-scale machine learning models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 or Google’s BERT, requires enormous computational power. That power, in turn, demands vast amounts of energy. Some studies have found that training a single AI model can emit as much carbon as five cars over their entire lifetimes.
When we talk about AI’s impact on the planet, we often overlook this environmental cost. AI, despite its potential, isn’t green by default. In fact, as AI systems become more advanced, their energy requirements increase exponentially, creating an ironic situation where the technology meant to “solve” problems for humanity is directly contributing to one of its biggest crises — climate change.
AI and Resource Extraction: The New Frontier of Capitalism
Let’s not kid ourselves. The rush to develop AI isn’t just about solving human problems. It’s also about who can control the next frontier of capitalism. From mining more data to making the gig economy even more exploitative, AI has become a tool of hyper-extraction. It maximizes profit while minimizing the costs for those at the top, all while leaving workers and the environment to pay the real price.
In the process, AI is accelerating some of the very systems that are killing the planet. Algorithms designed to maximize efficiency often encourage overconsumption — whether it’s making sure your social media feed serves you ads for products you don’t need or fine-tuning logistics for more deliveries of cheap goods that come wrapped in plastic.
A Different Future is Possible — But Not if We Stay on This Path
It’s not that AI can’t help create a better world. Used responsibly, AI could indeed help us design more efficient renewable energy systems, optimize the distribution of resources, and even predict ecological disasters before they happen. But that’s not where the majority of the investment is going.
To truly address the Earth’s crisis, we need to rethink where we’re investing our time, money, and brainpower. The current AI gold rush reflects the same profit-driven mindset that got us into this environmental mess. Instead of rushing to build machines that can think faster than we can, we should be focusing on building societies that can live more sustainably.
Final Call: A Call for Realignment
The Earth is indeed fucked — but not because technology itself is evil. It’s because we’ve been using technology in service of the wrong goals. AI is just the latest example of how innovation, without wisdom, can hasten our undoing.
Instead of investing billions into AI to fuel the very systems destroying the planet, we need a realignment of our priorities. We need to invest in regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, conservation efforts, and global equity. If we don’t, no amount of algorithmic optimization will save us from the looming environmental catastrophe.
As long as we continue to treat Earth as a resource to be exploited rather than a home to be preserved, we are on a one-way ticket to self-destruction — and AI is driving the train.