Reposted by Kate Crawford
Kate Crawford @katecrawford.bsky.social has an excellent commentary on the 70th anniversary of the Dartmouth summer workshop and calls for an "ethical reckoning" in the field. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Dartmouth’s AI summer and what came next
The 70th anniversary of the first AI workshop invites reflection on the technology’s wider legacies
![This reality highlights a structural barrier: If AI solutions to climate change do not yield near-term financial returns,
they may struggle to gain traction in an industry propelled by venture capital, quarterly earnings, and shareholder
expectations. Consequently, many of the touted climate positive AI applications, like energy grid optimization or automated water management, risk being overshadowed by more lucrative pursuits that do not necessarily mitigate
environmental harm. The underlying problem, then, is not just one of measuring or quantifying impacts more thoroughly within existing market logics — this simply perpetuates Jevons’ paradox. Instead, what is required is a more
substantial reimagining of the relationship between AI technologies, business objectives, and ecological imperatives
[98]. Genuinely climate-aligned AI strategies might require public policy frameworks that penalize unsustainable practices and reward genuinely carbon-negative deployments of AI, and business models that do not hinge on perpetual
growth, in order to ensure that increased AI efficiency does not simply spur more consumption](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreidhi2dw4hjn3seqczpxfoosdiifafv2kw67orckzhucfsyvmrm6fm)
