TECH & AI
“ Leading institutions including COP28 , the World Economic Forum , World Resources Institute and many more are pointing out that we need to think of climate , nature and people together . The awareness of the importance of nature as part of this integrated approach that we need to take to environmental sustainability is increasing quite rapidly . “ So then it ’ s kind of natural for us to start thinking about what we can do with AI to help nature protection explicitly , but also think about nature-based solutions to climate , and increasingly thinking about that people corner of the triangle .
“ That ’ s one of the more challenging ones for us to think about . Often if you work on just climate and nature , you ’ re in danger of disempowering and having unintended impacts on some of the most vulnerable people in the world . So at Google Deepmind we ’ re looking at how we address climate and nature without negatively affecting indigenous communities , for example .”
Robert sees AI as a key accelerator of sustainable development , and an exciting opportunity – when applied productively .
“ Fugro is continuously investigating how we can use AI and further technologies . One of the biggest challenges we have is acquiring as much information from the data that we can acquire in one go , because we want to reduce our impact by reducing the times we measure .”
Drew agrees that AI can be a tool for efficiency , but that developers need to consider the possible implications . It is no secret that AI has complicated ethics in terms of its energy intensity and extensive applications , and when considering the importance , and sometimes fragility , of biodiversity .
“ We need to be very cognizant of all of the potential unintended consequences of using AI , the energy and other resource use like the mining of the metals and materials ,” Drew explains . “ There are also potential safety , ethical implications , socio economic implications – we take it very seriously .”
The message is clear – technology has a place in the future of sustainability , and the opportunities that combining geodata and AI for the benefit and longevity of crucial biodiversity are extensive . It is , however , in the hands of governments , companies and organisations , as well as leaders like Google Deepmind and Fugro , to ensure that the developments are ethical , well-positioned and successful .
100 August 2024