Honestly, sustainability is one of the most overlooked risks of the AI boom.
Despite a long history of people charging forward and wrongly assuming we’ll be able to figure out the mess it makes later, we keep repeating our mistakes.
While we are definitely making some progress in important areas, we’ve got a long way to go.
Hi Christopher, thank you for your beautiful comment! I completely agree—sustainability often takes a backseat amid the excitement of innovation, and the AI boom is no exception.
It’s surprising how history keeps repeating itself with the "fix it later" mentality, even when the risks are staring us in the face. But I like to stay optimistic and draw a parallel when it comes to "fixing" things—I also hope it plays out this way.
When we first truly discovered sugar, we thought it was something beneficial to our health (you might have heard claims like "it cures cancer"). It gave us energy quickly and in high amounts, but we soon realized how much harm it caused, especially when consumed excessively. Over time, we accepted its downsides, found alternative sources of sweetness, and incorporated them into our lives. Now, we have a healthier relationship with sugar.
I think of sugar here as an analogy for the Industrial Revolution and fossil fuels—you’ve probably guessed that already—and the alternative sweeteners as renewable energy sources. I hope, at some point, we’ll be able to tell a similar story for this too :)
Thanks, Peter! So glad you liked it! Totally agree :) On the bright side, there are already plenty of solutions out there, and more are being developed—we just need to start implementing them and reorganizing our systems.
A similar but different take on this topic: https://open.substack.com/pub/aiofthecoast/p/ai-unbound-128-the-looming-energy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1xg2vh
Thanks for sharing Jiri!
No trouble, actually building them so close to my heart:)
Sounds great! I’ll check out your content :)
Really appreciated your take on this.
Honestly, sustainability is one of the most overlooked risks of the AI boom.
Despite a long history of people charging forward and wrongly assuming we’ll be able to figure out the mess it makes later, we keep repeating our mistakes.
While we are definitely making some progress in important areas, we’ve got a long way to go.
Thanks for drawing attention to it.
Hi Christopher, thank you for your beautiful comment! I completely agree—sustainability often takes a backseat amid the excitement of innovation, and the AI boom is no exception.
It’s surprising how history keeps repeating itself with the "fix it later" mentality, even when the risks are staring us in the face. But I like to stay optimistic and draw a parallel when it comes to "fixing" things—I also hope it plays out this way.
When we first truly discovered sugar, we thought it was something beneficial to our health (you might have heard claims like "it cures cancer"). It gave us energy quickly and in high amounts, but we soon realized how much harm it caused, especially when consumed excessively. Over time, we accepted its downsides, found alternative sources of sweetness, and incorporated them into our lives. Now, we have a healthier relationship with sugar.
I think of sugar here as an analogy for the Industrial Revolution and fossil fuels—you’ve probably guessed that already—and the alternative sweeteners as renewable energy sources. I hope, at some point, we’ll be able to tell a similar story for this too :)
Great article and very thought provoking. Time to get our skates on and find the solutions, wherever they are hidden.
Thanks, Peter! So glad you liked it! Totally agree :) On the bright side, there are already plenty of solutions out there, and more are being developed—we just need to start implementing them and reorganizing our systems.
Great article!
Thanks so much Kenneth!