Artificial intelligence and the environmental crisis – Can technology really save the world?
This is a review of a recent book, Artificial intelligence and the environmental crisis-Can technology really save the world? Routledge, 2020, pp 276, By Dr Keith Skene, Biosphere Research Institute, Dundee University.
Indigenous hunter gatherer communities in the past understood their natural world and lived within its constraints. As our society has become ever more complex, this relationship has broken. However, with the advent of AI, linked to worldwide environmental monitoring by satellites, and instruments and big data, human activities can be constrained so that they remain within the limits of our planet’s resources.
Dr Skene starts his excellent book by highlighting the importance that AI algorithms are free from the prejudices of their creators. He distinguishes between symbolic AI, where computer models are based on known scientific principles, and non-symbolic, which are based on serendipity. Surprisingly, the latter are the better predictor of reality, as with comparisons at each evolutionary step, the best results are achieved. This mimics the evolution of species, where each genetic change over a period of millions of years is compared, selected or rejected.
While Adam Smith’s second book, An Enquiry into the Causes and the Wealth of Nations, became his most famous, Dr Skene laments that his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, was largely ignored. This book dealt with the linkage between the richer employer and the poorer employee, that they were linked by an invisible hand, to their mutual benefit. Smith’s book projected society working together for their shared benefit, in comparison with the “dog eat dog” behaviours discussed in his second book. If we are to preserve the planet, we have to work together in a shared endeavor, like indigenous communities, if we are going to achieve a sustainable society.
Western shoppers see only imported glossy products, not the child labour, unhealthy mining for rare metals, or the pollution from coal fired power stations that are part of the manufacturing process. These “externalities” are not included in the price, but damage the planet and make poor people’s lives a misery. With the advent of AI, these “invisibles” can be quantified, added to the price of the product, and charged to the purchasers’ credit card. The balance can be used for planet restoration or to improve the lives of the poor.
While autocratic societies like China can impose top- down solutions, democratic western nations have to adopt bottom-up solutions, to achieve consensus. Neo-liberalisation cannot continue and must be replaced by shared endeavour.
Dr Skene’s book is full of humour and graphic examples, which helps the lay reader to understand the at times complex issues being discussed. A vital contribution to solving our planetary emergency.
Bob Pringle Bobpringle080@gmail.com 11/5/25