We often think of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a thing of the immediate future. We are constantly bombarded by slogans of AI coming to change our life, whether we like it or not. We are reassured it will be a better life. A better capitalism. A better environment. From smart devices to home voice assistants, image recognition and translation, AI is offered as the solution to the greatest challenges of this age. This portrayal of AI as a benevolent deity has a crucial effect: it obfuscates the materiality of the infrastructures and devices that are central to its functioning. In her new book Is AI good for the planet? (Polity, 2021). Benedetta Brevini asks us to think about AI in a different, and more material way than most of us have in the past.
In all its variety of forms, AI relies on large swathes of land and sea, vast arrays of technology, and greenhouse gas-emitting machines and infrastructures that deplete scarce resources in their production, consumption and disposal. AI also relies on data centres that demand excessive amounts of energy, water and finite resources to compute, analyse and categorize. Firmly situated in the critical tradition of the political economy of communication, Brevini’s work forces us to reconsider the way we look at AI. For the first time, Is AI good for the planet? brings the climate crisis to the centre of debates around AI developments.
Clearly, there are other important concerns about AI: from moral and ethical appeals for caution concerning use of AI in military operations to loss of human expertise in safeguarding human rights (public health and the judiciary), from algorithmic racial and gender biases to fears that AI will make human labour redundant. However, Brevini argues, if we lose our environment, we lose our planet. So, we must understand and debate the environmental costs of AI.
About the Speaker
Benedetta Brevini is a journalist, media activist and Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Sydney. Before joining the academy she worked as journalist in Milan, New York and London for CNBC and RAI. She writes on The Guardian’s Comment is Free and contributes to a number of print and web publications including Index of Censorship, OpenDemocracy and the Conversation. She is the author of Public Service Broadcasting Online (2013) and editor of Beyond Wikileaks (2013). Her latest volumes are Carbon Capitalism and Communication: Confronting Climate Crisis (PalgraveMacmillan, 2017), Climate Change and the Media (Peter Lang, 2018), and Amazon: Understanding a Global Communication Giant (Routledge, 2020). Is AI good for the planet? (Polity,2021) is her newest work.
About CAMRI
The Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) is a world-leading centre in the study of media and communication and is renowned for its critical and international research. CAMRI is situated in the School of Media and Communication. It builds on a long tradition of research in media and communication that spans five decades, as the university launched the first British media studies degree in 1975. The University of Westminster has been consistently ranked highly in media and communication studies according to the Research Excellence Framework and the QS World University Rankings.
CAMRI’s objective is to serve as a platform for critical media and communication studies that develop the legacy of the “Westminster School”. Our research analyses communication power in light of current transformations in society and the communications landscape. CAMRI’s research is organised in five thematic networks focusing on global media, political economy and communication policy, digital media, cultural identities and social change, as well as communication theory, history and philosophy. CAMRI studies the media and communication from an international and global perspective. Our work privileges sociological inquiry and qualitative methods. It takes a contextual approach that is historical, sceptical and nuanced. Our research is grounded in theory and is rich in empirical detail, thereby informing both a critical understanding of contemporary media, as well as new approaches to policy-making and practice.
CAMRI’s research is based on a broader purpose and vision for society. Our work examines how the media and society interact and aims to contribute to progressive social change, equality, justice, and democracy. CAMRI takes a public interest and humanistic approach that seeks to promote participation, facilitate informed debate and strengthen capabilities for critical thinking, complex problem solving and creativity.
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