"Bill Gates wants us all to be more upbeat about climate change. He argues that we've made great progress on the problem, aided in large part by technological advances. So it's time to focus more on improving people's lives, particularly by fighting hunger and disease, he writes in a memo published Tuesday. Of course, he says AI can help. It's supposed to be a hopeful message released ahead of high-stakes UN climate negotiations taking place next month."
"AI's growing energy demands have led to some cognitive dissonance. Microsoft set a goal in 2020 to become carbon negative, removing more CO2 pollution from the atmosphere than it creates. Instead, developing energy-hungry AI models has pushed the company's carbon emissions higher in recent years. Gates told me last year that he thinks the benefits of AI are worth it."
Bill Gates calls for a more upbeat view of climate change, saying technological advances have produced substantial progress and that attention should shift toward improving people's lives by fighting hunger and disease. He asserts AI can help and claims a doomsday outlook causes much of the climate community to overemphasize near-term emissions goals, diverting resources from effective adaptation and human welfare. Critics counter that this perspective is dangerously misguided and misleading. Microsoft's push into energy-intensive AI has raised emissions despite a 2020 goal to become carbon negative. Downplaying emissions benchmarks risks letting polluters avoid accountability.
Read at The Verge
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