“As long as we effectively subsidize fossil fuels by allowing them to use the atmosphere as a waste disposal site, we do not allow clean energy to compete on a level playing field,” said Berkeley Earth, an independent research organization. said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather. wrote X in response to Altman’s post. “Achieving climate goals will require policy change as well as technological innovation.”
That doesn’t mean we don’t still have big technical issues to solve. Take a look at our ongoing efforts to develop clean, cost-competitive ways to fertilize crops or fly airplanes. But the fundamental challenges of climate change are sunk costs, development obstacles and inertia.
We have built and paid for a global economy that emits planet-warming gases by investing trillions of dollars in power plants, steel mills, factories, jets, boilers, water heaters, stoves and SUVs that run on fossil fuels. And few people or companies are willing to write off these investments as long as the products and factories are still operational. AI cannot solve all problems simply by generating better ideas.
Destroying and replacing machinery in every industry around the world at the rate currently required will require increasingly aggressive climate policies that encourage or force everyone to switch to cleaner factories, products, and practices.
But whenever there are proposals for stricter laws or large-scale new wind or solar farms, the powers that be will push back. Because the plan will hit someone’s wallet, block someone’s views, or threaten someone’s cherished region or tradition. Climate change is an infrastructure problem, and building infrastructure is a messy human endeavor.
Advances in technology may alleviate some of these problems. Cheaper and better alternatives to legacy industries make difficult choices more politically preferable. However, there are no improvements in AI algorithms or underlying data sets that solve problems such as NIMBYism, conflict between human interests, and the desire to breathe fresh air in unpolluted wilderness.
Claiming that a single technology developed by a company can miraculously solve the intractable conflicts of human society is selfish at best, if not a little naive. And it’s a troubling thought to declare at a time when the growth of that very technology threatens the meager progress the world has begun to make on climate change.
One thing we can say with confidence about generative AI today is that it is making the hardest problems we’ve ever had to solve much more difficult to solve.
