AI guzzles energy for slop content – ​​could it be reimagined to help the climate?

AArtificial intelligence is often associated with ridiculous amounts of electricity, and therefore planet-heating emissions, expended to produce nonsensical or misleading crap that is of little value to humanity.

But some AI advocates at a major UN climate summit are putting forward an alternative view: What if AI could help us solve the climate crisis instead of making it worse?

The “AI for good” argument was made repeatedly at the Cop30 talks in Belém, Brazil. Proponents argued that through a range of efficiencies, AI could be used to reduce rather than increase emissions, which could spread to areas of our lives such as food, transportation and energy, which cause much of the pollution and dangerously heat our planet.

Last week, a coalition of groups, UN bodies and the Brazilian government unveiled the AI ​​Climate Institute, a new global initiative aimed at promoting AI “as an empowerment tool” in developing countries to help them address environmental challenges.

Proponents say the program,…