Does AI do more HARM than GOOD to the world? Bogdan Bocse, CEO @ KNOSIS, explains his perspective in a dialogue about Sustainable Development Goals and Artificial Intelligence.
Does AI do more GOOD or HARM to the world?
The answer to your question depends on the collective choice we, as a civilization, have not yet made. And that choice has to do with picking one of two roads.
The path of evidence-based science
If we pick the road of understanding WHY these concepts work: WHY Artificial Intelligence work, how to make it more efficient, or how to make it make itself more efficient.
If we go down that road of, let’s say, science, of investigation, of measurement, of having measurable statements in our communication, in our products and in our interfaces, then decidedly, all emerging technology, which is colloquially called „Artificial Intelligence” is our only chance for the future.
The current path
However, if we keep down the current path of maximising, profit, consumerism and usability, for the laziness of the mind of the uneducated masses who consume, if our primary objective is to increase the consumption of the masses, which I will emphasise that at the moment, unfortunately, and regrettably, 80% – 90% of Artificial Intelligence deployments are used for processes which maximise consumption, if we keep doing this, the only thing AI will help us to do is to burn the planet faster.
Now, so it’s the decision we face with Artificial Intelligence and with all the connected & associated technology, like distributed ledger, the Internet of Things, all of these are instruments from the same Symphony.
If we conduct the symphony for the purpose of maximising the objectives of the 19th century, then, I think, it will shorten the lifespan of our civilization.
And from a karmic point of view, I can’t help but agree that if we use super technology in order to just think about ourselves, we should disappear and make room for something else.
80% – 90% of the industry is explicitly part of the problem
However, if we take this call to action that nature has put upon us – to invest in technology that is sustainable, which makes itself more sustainable by operation – and there are a lot of initiatives, some of which are in our current portfolio, that can be part of the solution – but regrettably, at the moment, 80% – 90% of the industry is explicitly part of the problem by the fact that they are recklessly, recklessly increasing the energy footprint and the carbon footprint of grossly inefficient computational deployments, which are usually referred to as the cloud.
So basically, the part of it that is destroying the Earth is the Cloud. Not the technology itself, but the centralization of it.
to be continued
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