Technological Tug of War: AI's Complex Role in the Climate Crisis

On July 4th, the hottest average temperature of the planet ever was recorded. Since the planet is warmer today than it has been for many millennia, pundits have taken the ball and run with it, proclaiming the recently recorded temperatures the hottest the planet has been in more than 100,000 years. And, as hyperbolic as this might sound, it’s not wrong.

For several days in a row, this record was then broken. Each next day was hotter than the last. Last night, in Phoenix, the temperature never dropped below 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

In 2022, heat waves in Europe killed around 1500 people. This year, the heat wave is much worse, with several record-breaking all-time high temperatures in places like Rome.

Meanwhile, 2023 has seen an absolute explosion in the use of, investment in, and widespread awareness of AI. ChatGPT reached 100 million users in record time (recently broken by Threads), Meta just announced that they’re rolling out their LLaMA 2 model to open source developers, and they hav…