NEW REPORT – The AI climate hoax
Access the raw data, chart files and other documents
I guarantee you’ve heard the harms of data centre expansion justified on the grounds that “AI” will ‘solve climate change’. These range from sci-fi claims of superintelligence through to detailed reports stacked with hundreds of examples of ‘AI for good’ helping energy, transport and industry cut emissions.
In partnership with the good people at the organisations shown below, I’ve created a new report that, for the first time, interrogates both the logic and the evidence for this claim.
We found that most of the ‘benefit’ tends to relate to older, smaller and leaner forms of machine learning, what has been called ‘traditional AI’, while we also know that most of the new harm is likely stemming from consumer generative AI over-deployment.
This distracts from the decisions made by companies that result in their own fossil fuel use rising at an unprecedented rate.
We also found that the evidence presented for examples of climate benefit, regardless of AI type, tend to be weak whether from companies or organisations like the IEA. The potential benefits are overstated, in surprising and significant ways.
What we see is companies veering wildly away from their climate targets. In most cases, this is true whether you use their ‘adjusted’ metrics that incorporate renewable energy offsets and deals or not.
That is a choice, and this focus on ‘AI for climate’ is a distraction from the decision to worsen the pollution of data centres through an unprecedented explosion of digital bloat.
Video and social
3 minute overview: AI vague-washing (watch on Youtube)
3 minute overview: Weak evidence for benefit, strong evidence of harm (watch on Youtube)
Supported by
Very genuine and warm thanks to the good people at the follow organisations, who supported this work and continue to push for accountability from polluters:
About Beyond Fossil Fuels
Beyond Fossil Fuels is a civil society network committed to ensuring a just and rapid transition to a fossil-free, renewables-based future. Building upon the Europe Beyond Coal campaign, its goal is for Europe to be coal-free by 2030 and phase out fossil gas from the power sector by 2035. A clean and flexible energy system will deliver lasting benefits for people, the climate and the broader economy. Beyond Fossil Fuels is a non-profit organisation with an office in Berlin, with staff spread across Europe.
http://www.beyondfossilfuels.org
About Stand.earth
Stand.earth is a global advocacy organization delivering large-scale change for our planet and its people by interrupting the systems that create environmental and climate crises. Its mission is to challenge corporations and governments to treat people and the environment with respect. Stand’s worldwide community of more than one million members advocates for a climate-safe, equitable future, where environmental and climate justice policies uphold the dignity of people everywhere – at the scale our world requires.
https://stand.earth
About Climate Action Against Disinformation
Climate Action Against Disinformation is a global coalition of over 120 leading climate and anti-disinformation organisations across the globe demanding robust, coordinated and proactive strategies to deal with the scale of the threat of climate misinformation and disinformation.
https://caad.info
About Friends of the Earth U.S.
Friends of the Earth U.S. works to reduce the spread of disinformation that potentially affects all of our campaigns. As technology and media companies consolidate their power, our fundamental ability to campaign on any issue is threatened, as corporate polluters gain more control over the basic communications systems that are needed for social change and democracy itself.
https://foe.org/projects/disinformation/
About Green Screen Coalition
The Green Screen Climate Justice and Digital Rights Coalition is a group of funders and practitioners looking to build bridges across the digital rights and climate justice movements. The aim of the coalition is to be a catalyst in making visible the climate implications of technology by supporting emerging on-the-ground work, building networks, and embedding the issue as an area within philanthropy. https://greenscreen.network
About Green Web Foundation
Green Web Foundation is a non-profit organisation working towards a fossil-free internet by 2030 by reducing absolute emissions and phasing out fossil fuels in data centers – fast, fairly and forever. The foundation maintains the world’s largest open dataset of websites that run on green energy and builds open source tools for measuring and mitigating emissions from digital services.
https://greenweb.org/
