WHAT ABOUT AI? A promising tool to find solutions or a waste of valuable energy?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our world, enabling computers to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem human. This powerful technology is already being used to benefit the environment – optimising efficiencies, predicting weather patterns, and mapping ecological impacts. However, the immense computing power required for AI comes at a cost, consuming vast amounts of energy and other critical resources.

In this episode, James and Daisy talk about AI. What exactly is AI? What are its environmental impacts? And with AI now deeply embedded in our daily lives, how can we ensure it evolves responsibly to benefit all humanity?

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Code Dependent: How AI is Changing Our Lives – This book by Madhumita Murgia explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society.
• Liebreich: Generative AI – The Power and the Glory (2024) – Michael Liebreich examines the transformative potential of generative AI, particularly in creative and industrial sectors.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• Mo Gawdat – The Former Chief Business Officer at Google X published Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World, a roadmap detailing how humanity can ensure a symbiotic coexistence with AI when it inevitably becomes a billion times smarter than we are.
• Perplexity AI – A conversational search engine that uses large language models to answer queries with sourced citations.
• Verv is an AI-based smart home product that sits next to your electricity or smart meter and analyses your home energy data at its source.
• IBM (2024) – A clear overview of AI and how it works.
• BBC (2025) – “Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to "build baby build", as he announced plans to make it easier to construct mini nuclear power stations in England and Wales.”
• Goldman Sachs (2024): “On average, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search.”
• Google (2024): “Our total GHG emissions were 14.3 million tCO2e, representing a 13% year-over-year increase and a 48% increase compared to our 2019 target base year—primarily due to increases in data center energy consumption and supply chain emissions”
• ITU (2023) – Approximately 67% of the world's population (5.4 billion people) is now online. In Africa, that figure is just 37%.
• UNCTAD (2024) – “The production of a single 2 kg computer requires the extraction of a staggering 800 kg of raw materials.”

Also, we looked up data centres in Ireland…

• The Guardian (2024) – Ireland’s growing fleet of datacentres used 21% of its electricity, an increase of a fifth on 2022.

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Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.