Eric Schmidt says that the world should invest in artificial intelligence before achieving climate goals, which “we won’t hit anyway”.
He made this bold statement at a AI summit last week.
Shmidt was the chief executive officer of Google between 2001 and 2011.
The tech giant became “carbon neutral” during his tenure for the first time.
The industry mogul believes that the goal of achieving net-zero emission by 2050 is a bit ambitious, especially because “we’re just not organized enough” to reach the initial target set by the Biden administration.
Google’s stock is edging up as I write this on Tuesday.
How can AI be used to achieve climate goals?
AI data centres will most likely hinder the reduction of carbon emissions, as they consume enormous amounts energy. The International Energy Agency predicts that AI data centres will consume up to ten times more energy this year than in 2022.
Eric Schmidt still said, “I’d rather wager on AI”, as a sustainable climate change solution may not lie in a wider commitment to limit emissions but in finding ways to efficiently remove carbon from the environment.
He added that artificial intelligence could be a great help in resolving this problem.
Other people, including billionaire Elon Mots, have expressed a similar opinion that utilizing technological innovations to eliminate carbon from the atmosphere may be a more effective long-term solution for climate change.
Environmentalists disagreed with Eric Schmidt
At the summit, Eric Schmidt spoke about ways to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of artificial intelligence by using better batteries and powerlines.
He argued that even these measures would eventually be overwhelmed by the continued explosive growth of AI.
Statista predicts that artificial intelligence will be a market worth $1.0 trillion by the year 2030.
However, using AI to find new ways to eliminate carbon from the environment could be a more pragmatic solution to climate changes because the world is currently hyper-dependent on fossil fuels.
Theoretically, it could be easier to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than to minimise its emissions. Evidently, environmental experts and advocates disagree.
Eric Shmidt’s comments have already been heavily criticized by environmentalists, who are convinced that an increase in AI power consumption will lead to a long-term catastrophe for the Earth.
This post Former Google chief executive prioritises AI over climate goals may be updated as new information becomes available
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