A series of climate conferences have aimed to slow down global warming – but CO2 emissions are continuing to rise. Is there an effective solution? How about deploying artificial intelligence?
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00:00Can AI save the climate?
00:03The lawnmower stops, the car won't go, factories grind to a halt.
00:08That could happen if AI decides what's climate friendly and what isn't.
00:13As long as it does what artificial intelligence does best, calculate everything exactly.
00:22AI could react to CO2 emissions in real time, for example by stopping cars when air quality drops.
00:31How would that work?
00:33AI could use data contained in household appliances like coffee makers and dishwashers to measure CO2 emissions.
00:42When emissions drop below a predetermined limit, everything starts working again.
00:47You can even ask AI how much longer the dishwasher will be on.
00:51AI could also manage other environmental problems like the growing mountains of garbage and textile waste.
00:58Energy production would benefit as well.
01:02The advantage? Everything would be based on hard data, taking climate action out of the hands of governments.
01:12But there would be disadvantages too.
01:14AI would have to collect immense amounts of our data, threatening personal privacy.
01:21And to process all that data, AI itself would require huge amounts of energy.
01:26And that would increase CO2 emissions dramatically.
01:30Digital systems and data centers already consume 4% of the world's electricity.
01:35That number rises to 8% when we include all of our devices.
01:40AI would increase that many times over.
01:45But even if there were big advancements in green AI, there would still be a problem.
01:51For AI to save the climate, every country on Earth would have to participate.
01:56And that would bring us back to politics.