Is AI Good for the Planet?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is presented as a solution to the greatest challenges of our time: from global pandemics and chronic diseases to cyber security threats and, of course, the climate crisis. But we should think about AI in a different and more material way: running on technology that depletes scarce resources and relying on data centres that demand excessive energy use, AI is also contributing to the climate crisis. Collectively, these processes involve extensive energy consumption and the burning of fossil fuels that make the climate crisis worse.

For the first time, 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 the way we look at it. Powerfully written, this book reveals how we should no longer ignore the environmental problems generated by AI. Instead, embracing a green agenda for AI that puts the climate crisis at centre stage is our urgent priority.

Written in a clear and accessible style, and underpinned by research and wide-ranging international examples, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of artificial intelligence, environmental studies, politics, and media studies, as well as general readers interested in the connections between technology and the environment.