### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 20th September 2024 ###
Dear Editor,
I read Dan Milmo’s piece on AI (with quotes from Debbie Weinstein of Google, The Guardian, 19th September 2024, link below) and feel extremely dubious about the deregulation being proposed.
Google is probably right that countries which do not invest/allow development will be left behind in the race for AI but the bigger question is whether we even want to go there at all?
One point that was missing from the article was the issue of the energy needed to power the proposed data-centres. Indeed The Guardian has already highlighted these problems (e.g. in Oliver Milman’s article on 7th March 2024 with quotes from Michael Khoo of Friends of the Earth).And, on top of this, as I understand it, AI’s intensive processing-requirements will cause it to consume massively more electricity than other internet offerings.
So I am extremely worried that the world will “steam ahead” with the AI-project, whilst willfully disregarding the threat that it posses to the climate and to the environment.
PS: Companies may say that they plan to use “green energy” (at some point, whenever that may be) but surely renewable energy should first go to power schools and hospitals before we ask it to generate funny poems about our mother-in-law?
Yours,
Alan Mitcham
Link to original article: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/19/google-says-uk-risks-being-left-behind-in-ai-race-without-more-data-centres
Link to article on AI and its energy-use: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/07/ai-climate-change-energy-disinformation-report
Leave a Reply