Season 3 - Ep 2: AI, sustainability and the tech industry with Data & Society's AIMLab

This week Felicia talks to Dr Tamara Kneese, a senior researcher and project director at Data & Society's Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab about the questions that need to be asked about the use of AI, its impact on the tech industry and how to use it mindfully.

While there are huge opportunities to address climate and sustainability challenges (in terms of circularity, monitoring and managing the grid, carbon management, efficiency, new materials creation and more) challenges lie in the impact on labour, energy demand, and the acceleration of extractive industries.

The discussion highlights the complex challenges in realising AI's potential benefits while addressing its significant downsides, especially when it comes to environmental sustainability. We tackle questions on efficiency, increased resource demand, the need to differentiate between use cases, the challenges in incorporating user feedback into meaningful product changes or the role of regulation.

Tamara was the author of the Green Software Foundation's first State of Green Software Report and, prior to that, she was director of developer engagement on the green software team at Intel. Her first book, Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond, was published by Yale University Press in August 2023.

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