Waag Futurelab has signed the statement Within Bounds: Limiting AI’s Environmental Impact. Waag and 80+ organisations call on policymakers, industry leaders and all stakeholders to limit AI's climate impact.
Critical infrastructure lab, Green Screen Coalition, Green Web Foundation, Beyond Fossil Fuels and Aspiration drafted the statement in response to the AI Action Summit taking place in France on 10-11 February, where many heads of state and tech companies are gathering.
To meet the challenge of climate change, environmental degradation, pollution and biodiversity loss, and its attendant injustices, we urge policymakers, industry leaders and all stakeholders to acknowledge the true environmental costs of AI, to phase out fossil fuels throughout the technology supply chain, to reject false solutions, and to dedicate all necessary means to bring AI systems in line with planetary boundaries. Meeting these demands is an essential step to ensure that AI is not driving further planetary degradation and could instead support a sustainable and equitable transition.
The demands outlined in the statement offer practical pathways to align AI within planetary boundaries. A few of the demands:
- Tech companies must ensure that the mining for raw materials in their supply chain does not harm the environment or local communities.
- Governments must prohibit planned obsolescence and champion the right to repair.Communities impacted across the supply chain must be included in any decision-making, activities and practices that affect them.
- Environmental impacts including energy and water usage must be tracked and measured across the entire AI lifecycle.
- AI infrastructure providers must be transparent about the development, resource consumption, and impacts of data centres before they are built.
- Operators must release data on the environmental impact of their hardware development and transportation in a timely, open, and accessible format.
Urban ecology lab
Waag's Urban ecology lab is committed to technology that works within planetary boundaries, or regenerative technology. In the project Designing Regenerative Technologies, Waag works with artists, makers and designers to develop methods for making and using regenerative technology. Want to stay informed about technology in relation to ecology? Subscribe to the newsletter (themes: citizen science, sensor technology, urban ecology).