Wednesday, Sept 3

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dear Reader,

Dot is no fan of AI, broadly speaking. I fear it is making us dumber, more neurotic, less creative, and exacerbating inequality. The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel described AI’s current effect on us as “the sinking feeling of a societal race toward a future that feels bloodless, hastily conceived, and shruggingly accepted.” 

But, and stay with me here, like pretty much any technology, the problem isn’t necessarily the technology itself but how we use it (and, as Warzel argues, how we market it). Some scientists are using AI in fascinating ways — ways that can grant us insights that have eluded us and accelerate game-changing research. Such as, you ask?

Such as AI helping us understand what whales are communicating to each other; such as building a massive atlas of underground fungi; such as quickly and accurately monitoring fish species and by-catch in order to prevent collapse; such as helping us “eco-drive,” which could prevent as many emissions from idling and stopping as half of what’s emitted by the U.S. aviation industry.

But, while this aspect is promising, let’s not get too starry-eyed about the predictions of the AI boosters. After all, lots of what we’re seeing should have all of us calling for guardrails and regulation. Or, as Warzel writes, “What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet and the planet, reorient our economy and leverage ourselves, outsource big chunks of our minds, realign our geopolitics and culture, and fight endlessly over a technology that never comes close to delivering on its grandest promises? What if we spend so much time waiting and arguing that we fail to marshal our energy toward addressing the problems that exist here and now?” 

Good questions. And worth considering even as Dot somewhat reluctantly declares AI to be this week’s Climate Champ.

Guardedly,

Dot

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