Artificial intelligence is all the rage with ChatGPT’s emergence, so a University of California academic is exploring AI’s upsides and peril for the climate, Ben writes.
The big picture: Here’s Berkeley resource economist James Sallee’s thinking about the next five to 15 years:
AI may speed economic growth. “Deep decarbonization… requires significant structural and societal change, and change is easier to achieve when the economic pie is growing,” he writes in a new post.
AI can foster innovation in climate tech but also marketing, communications and policy.
Yes, but: It could also disrupt industries, worsen inequality, and sow division — all bad things for climate cooperation.
- Another concern: Tech like ChatGPT could muddy political waters by making misinformation more potent.
- “Vested interests, from petro-states to old fashioned oil companies, that wish to obstruct the policy and social cohesion needed to accelerate the clean energy transition have a powerful new tool.”
The bottom line: If you see climate as largely a tech problem, AI is cause for optimism, he writes.
- “If, on the other hand, you view the climate struggle as a pitched battle between partisans, you may well come to a different, darker view.”