Eric Schmidt says the world should prioritise investing in artificial intelligence over climate goals that “we’re not going to hit anyways”.
He made that bold statement at an AI summit last week.
Shmidt served as the chief executive of Google from 2001 to 2011.
The tech behemoth turned “carbon neutral” for the first time during his tenure.
The industry mogul finds the pursuit of net-zero emissions by 2050 a bit too ambitious, especially since “we’re not organized” enough to achieve the target that was first laid out by the Biden administration.
Google stock is inching up at writing on Tuesday.
How can AI help achieve climate goals?
AI data centres are more than likely to stand in the way of lowering carbon emissions considering they consume enormous amounts of energy. In fact, the International Energy Agency forecasts AI data centres to consume up to 10 times more power this year than they did in 2022.
Still, Eric Schmidt said “I’d rather bet on AI” as a sustainable solution to climate change may not lie in a broader commitment to restrict emissions but in looking for ways to efficiently eliminate carbon from the environment.
That’s a potential fix that artificial intelligence may help a great deal with, he added.
Others including billionaire Elon Musk have previously echoed a similar view that tapping on technological innovations to authentically eliminate carbon from the environment may be a better long-term solution to climate change.
Environmentalists disagree with Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt talked of ways to potentially mitigate the negative environmental effects of artificial intelligence with better batteries and power lines at the summit.
But even such measures will eventually surrender to a continued explosive growth in AI, he argued.
Note that Statista forecasts artificial intelligence to be a $1.0 trillion market by the end of 2030.
Nonetheless, using AI to discover new ways of eliminating carbon from the environment may be a more practical solution to climate change because the world is hyper dependent on fossil fuels at the moment.
So, theoretically, it may be significantly easier to remove carbon from the environment than minimise its emissions in the first place. Evidently, however, the environmental experts and enthusiasts disagree.
Eric Shmidt has already drawn massive criticism from the environment lobbyists who remain convinced that a continued increase in AI power consumption could mean a catastrophe for the planet in the long run.
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