From AI sustainability to dystopian futures in novels, Kerry McInerney discusses her experiences at sea and the impact of AI. She explores the Sustainable AI Movement, small-scale AI models, and the harmony between the sea and AI development.
The podcast discusses the Sustainable AI Movement focusing on environmentally friendly AI technologies and the ecological costs associated with unchecked AI development.
It emphasizes the intertwining of AI ethics with social justice, exploring dystopian narratives that depict economic exploitation, environmental harm, and justice issues in AI contexts.
Deep dives
Exploring Sustainable AI Movement
The podcast episode delves into the concept of the Sustainable AI Movement, emphasizing the need for environmentally friendly AI technologies. The discussion highlights the ecological costs associated with AI, such as the energy and water demands of data centers, and the potential environmental risks of unchecked AI development. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are mentioned for their commitments to carbon reduction efforts, aiming for net-zero emissions by 2030. The Sustainable AI Movement aims to harness AI's computational capacities for environmental benefits, advocating for clean, green, and efficient AI.
Reimagining AI Ethics and Justice
The episode prompts a reevaluation of AI ethics and its implications on social justice. It draws attention to dystopian science fiction narratives that intertwine environmental degradation with themes of racial, gender, and disability justice in AI contexts. Novels like 'Waste Tide' and 'Saltfish Girl' depict a future where AI exacerbates economic exploitation and environmental harm, underscoring the need for a holistic approach to AI development. By intertwining environmental, racial, and economic justice in AI narratives, the episode challenges traditional views of AI ethics and highlights the interconnectedness of societal issues.
Embracing Small-Scale AI Design
The podcast advocates for a shift towards small-scale AI design and practices, contrasting the prevalent large-scale AI models with more tailored and culturally specific approaches. The narrative explores the concept of 'pathologies of scale' in AI, emphasizing the risks associated with massive computational models like OpenAI's GPT. It mentions a speculative design project involving a biotech EEL AI rooted in Basque cultural traditions, showcasing how AI can be localized and focused on building reciprocal relationships with communities and the environment. By highlighting the potential for AI to be small-scale and culturally embedded, the episode encourages reimagining AI design practices for ethical and sustainable outcomes.
Two years living at sea taught New Generation Thinker Kerry McInerney values which she wants to apply to the development of AI. Her Essay explores the "sustainable AI" movement and looks at visions of the future in novels including Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan and Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl. Dr McInerney is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge and a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to put academic research on radio.
Producer: Julian Siddle
You can hear more from Kerry in Free Thinking and New Thinking episodes available as Arts & Ideas podcasts called AI, feminism, human/machines and Yellowface, AI and Asian stereotypes
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