{"title":"AI in the Wild: Sustainability in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Peter Dauvergne","authors":"R. Tiller","doi":"10.1162/glep_r_00732","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Will artificial intelligence (AI) be the panacea of environmental governance in an age of planetary crisis? Can technology save us from ourselves? We already seem unable to curb our enthusiasm for consumption, which is further encouraged by “AI fueled advertisement ... set to turbocharge consumerism” (180). This is a core exploration in Peter Dauvergne’s book AI in the Wild. He examines the role of AI as a contributor of data, precision, trust, and efficiency of governance, in language that is accessible and at times reads like a novel, making you want to know more and keep turning pages. The examination spans crosssectoral topics from land to sea and considers the pros, cons, and in-betweens of the birth and rapid growth of AI in businesses, education, homes, environmental governance, and everywhere else. And you come to realize this almost immediately—AI is in everything we do, everywhere we go, all at once. And it can be used for amazing things, as Dauvergne points out, highlighting some of the genius ways in which AI is used precisely to advance humanity and rectify some of the damage we have inflicted on our environment. But the benefits of AI can also be used for all that’s bad in the world, and—spoiler alert—an important conclusion of the book is that AI will not save us. For Dauvergne, there seemingly is no way out of our current state of affairs within the contemporary global order, because AI cannot “overthrow the entrenched interests that are exploiting people and nature” (8). Though this impression permeates the book, Dauvergne does try to balance the book on the good side of the edge of despair as he also guides the reader through the benefits—and exploitation potentials—of AI. The book follows the use of AI in several different sectors spanning the themes of conservation, ecobusinesses, smart products, and smart cities and farms. It follows a similar pattern in each example—starting with emphasizing how it can benefit governance of a given sector with its use. AI canmonitor illegal logging of rainforests to alert managers faster, eradicate invasive species harmful to a given ecosystem using underwater robots with machine vision technology, empower police officers to identify and arrest ivory poachers in Africa with camera catch technology in parks,","PeriodicalId":47774,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Politics","volume":"23 1","pages":"130-131"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"19","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Environmental Politics","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_r_00732","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 19
Abstract
Will artificial intelligence (AI) be the panacea of environmental governance in an age of planetary crisis? Can technology save us from ourselves? We already seem unable to curb our enthusiasm for consumption, which is further encouraged by “AI fueled advertisement ... set to turbocharge consumerism” (180). This is a core exploration in Peter Dauvergne’s book AI in the Wild. He examines the role of AI as a contributor of data, precision, trust, and efficiency of governance, in language that is accessible and at times reads like a novel, making you want to know more and keep turning pages. The examination spans crosssectoral topics from land to sea and considers the pros, cons, and in-betweens of the birth and rapid growth of AI in businesses, education, homes, environmental governance, and everywhere else. And you come to realize this almost immediately—AI is in everything we do, everywhere we go, all at once. And it can be used for amazing things, as Dauvergne points out, highlighting some of the genius ways in which AI is used precisely to advance humanity and rectify some of the damage we have inflicted on our environment. But the benefits of AI can also be used for all that’s bad in the world, and—spoiler alert—an important conclusion of the book is that AI will not save us. For Dauvergne, there seemingly is no way out of our current state of affairs within the contemporary global order, because AI cannot “overthrow the entrenched interests that are exploiting people and nature” (8). Though this impression permeates the book, Dauvergne does try to balance the book on the good side of the edge of despair as he also guides the reader through the benefits—and exploitation potentials—of AI. The book follows the use of AI in several different sectors spanning the themes of conservation, ecobusinesses, smart products, and smart cities and farms. It follows a similar pattern in each example—starting with emphasizing how it can benefit governance of a given sector with its use. AI canmonitor illegal logging of rainforests to alert managers faster, eradicate invasive species harmful to a given ecosystem using underwater robots with machine vision technology, empower police officers to identify and arrest ivory poachers in Africa with camera catch technology in parks,
在全球危机时代,人工智能会成为环境治理的灵丹妙药吗?技术能拯救我们吗?我们似乎已经无法抑制我们的消费热情,“人工智能推动的广告……将推动消费主义”(180)进一步鼓励了我们的消费。这是彼得·道弗涅(Peter Dauvergne)的《荒野中的人工智能》(AI in the Wild)一书中的核心探索。他用通俗易懂的语言审视了人工智能作为数据、准确性、信任和治理效率贡献者的作用,有时读起来像小说,让你想了解更多,并不断翻页。该考试涵盖了从陆地到海洋的跨部门主题,并考虑了人工智能在商业、教育、家庭、环境治理和其他领域的诞生和快速增长的利弊和中间因素。你几乎立刻就会意识到这一点——人工智能存在于我们所做的每一件事中,无论我们走到哪里,都是一次性的。正如Dauvergne所指出的,它可以用于惊人的事情,突出了人工智能被用来促进人类进步和纠正我们对环境造成的一些破坏的一些天才方式。但人工智能的好处也可以用于世界上所有的坏事,而且——剧透提醒——这本书的一个重要结论是,人工智能不会拯救我们。对道弗涅来说,在当代全球秩序中,我们目前的状况似乎没有出路,因为人工智能无法“推翻剥削人类和自然的根深蒂固的利益”(8)。尽管这一印象渗透在书中,但Dauvergne确实试图在绝望边缘的好的一面上平衡这本书,同时他也引导读者了解人工智能的好处和开发潜力。这本书讲述了人工智能在几个不同领域的应用,涵盖了保护、生态企业、智能产品、智能城市和农场等主题。在每个例子中,它都遵循类似的模式——首先强调如何通过使用它来有益于特定部门的治理。人工智能可以监控雨林的非法砍伐,以更快地提醒管理者,使用具有机器视觉技术的水下机器人根除对特定生态系统有害的入侵物种,让警察能够在公园里使用摄像头捕捉技术识别和逮捕非洲的象牙偷猎者,
期刊介绍:
Global Environmental Politics examines the relationship between global political forces and environmental change, with particular attention given to the implications of local-global interactions for environmental management as well as the implications of environmental change for world politics. Each issue is divided into research articles and a shorter forum articles focusing on issues such as the role of states, multilateral institutions and agreements, trade, international finance, corporations, science and technology, and grassroots movements.