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Benedetta Brevini, Is AI Good for the Planet?

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By Eike Petersen

Is AI Good for the Planet? Benedetta Brevini (2021) 160pp., $US13 paperback, Polity Press, Cambridge, ISBN: 978-1509547951

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been hailed as an essential solution to practically all critical chal- lenges faced by humanity, including climate change and other natural disasters. In parallel with its proliferation over the course of the last decade, critical voices have grown stronger as well, how- ever. These critics observe that today’s AI systems power a new type of surveillance capitalism and attention economy (Zuboff, 2019), that they aggravate power disparities and cause new monopolies to emerge, and that they are based on the exploitation of cheap ‘data workers’ and extensive resource extraction that is damaging the environment (Crawford, 2021). Benedetta Brevini’s short book adds to this growing body of critical literature, focusing on the relationship between AI and the climate crisis. Given the urgency of this crisis and the scarcity of detailed arguments in the public discourse on whether and how AI can contribute to its solution, Brevini’s book is certainly timely. A quick glance at the table of contents firmly establishes the author’s stance on the question posed in the title, with chapters on AI hype, data capitalism and why AI worsens the climate crisis. Does it? Could it also be a force for planetary good?

page: 246 – 250
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation
Volume 38, Issue 2
SKU: 380208

SKU: 380208 Category: Tag:

Description

By Eike Petersen

Is AI Good for the Planet? Benedetta Brevini (2021) 160pp., $US13 paperback, Polity Press, Cambridge, ISBN: 978-1509547951

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been hailed as an essential solution to practically all critical chal- lenges faced by humanity, including climate change and other natural disasters. In parallel with its proliferation over the course of the last decade, critical voices have grown stronger as well, how- ever. These critics observe that today’s AI systems power a new type of surveillance capitalism and attention economy (Zuboff, 2019), that they aggravate power disparities and cause new monopolies to emerge, and that they are based on the exploitation of cheap ‘data workers’ and extensive resource extraction that is damaging the environment (Crawford, 2021). Benedetta Brevini’s short book adds to this growing body of critical literature, focusing on the relationship between AI and the climate crisis. Given the urgency of this crisis and the scarcity of detailed arguments in the public discourse on whether and how AI can contribute to its solution, Brevini’s book is certainly timely. A quick glance at the table of contents firmly establishes the author’s stance on the question posed in the title, with chapters on AI hype, data capitalism and why AI worsens the climate crisis. Does it? Could it also be a force for planetary good?

page: 246 – 250
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation
Volume 38, Issue 2
SKU: 380208

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