Robots for the Rest of Us

Robots for the Rest of Us

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Robots for the Rest of Us
Robots for the Rest of Us
Congress notices AI's environmental impact, "no" to robot patrols and AI tutors, and some good reads

Congress notices AI's environmental impact, "no" to robot patrols and AI tutors, and some good reads

5 robot-related stories for this week

David Berreby's avatar
David Berreby
Feb 03, 2024
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Robots for the Rest of Us
Robots for the Rest of Us
Congress notices AI's environmental impact, "no" to robot patrols and AI tutors, and some good reads
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Congress looks at the AI explosion’s environmental costs

Looks as if 2024 will be remembered as the year the public grokked that AI-in-everything is going to have a real impact on the environment -- directly in carbon emissions and water usage; indirectly in the second-order impacts of making a whole lot of chips, from mining to manufacturing to transportation.

What impact, though? How much carbon from electricity demand, and how much water used for cooling data centers? It's a more complex question than trying to reckon the effect of digital life in total, because AI -- unlike playing Fortnite or mining Bitcoin -- could also contribute to reducing environmental damage. It could improve models, find efficiency improvements in materials, reduce fuel-wasting transportation snags, and so on.

I'll have more to say on this shortly but this week I just want to mention a new development in Washington: Some Democratic lawmakers have introduced a measure, the "Artificial Intelligence Environmenta…

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