Silicon Valley is sacrificing the climate for AI

The generative AI hype cycle has been revelatory for many reasons. The tech industry’s dependence on boom and bust cycles to drive investment based on inflated promises was put on full display. Some of the obscure beliefs held by tech billionaires had a light shone on them, particularly how determined they are to believe computers will one day be able to replicate human thought patterns. But it also showed how willing they are to sacrifice the rest of us on the altar of their technological ambitions.

Earlier this month, we saw yet another example of that. On October 1, the Special Competitive Studies Project held its inaugural AI+Energy Summit. The think tank is funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to promote his goal of getting the US military to aggressively adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). On stage at the conference, Schmidt was asked whether his ambitions for AI adoption could be squared with the need to meet our climate targets. His answer was shocking, but also confirmation of a pattern we’ve been seeing from Silicon Valley leaders.

After calling AI a “universal technology” that can be put to virtually any use, he asserted that “we’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway,” effectively arguing the tech industry should be off the hook for its rising emissions. Instead, he said we face two scenarios: one where we breach emissions targets without AI and another where we emit even more, but at least we have that supposed “alien intelligence” to help us.

“I’d rather bet on AI solving the problem than constraining it and having the problem,” he concluded, never accepting that another scenario where we do take the climate crisis seriously without generative AI could be considered. His comments are an example of the tech industry’s evolving stance on climate change that it will either be solved through new technologies or the planet will be left to warm, regardless of the consequences.