Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Google’s machine translations and OpenAI’s applications never appear as the result of countless coal mines, metallurgical plants, water dams or data centers, nor do they let you suspect the existence of the millions of humans employed at the various links of these labyrinthine supply chains. Instant answers are supposed to come mainly from grey matter, from a certain genius for innovation and business. We must manage to imagine what “artificial intelligence” exactly is materially. What are the raw materials, resources, factories and waste products of “thinking machines”? What ecological, social and geopolitical conditions allow them to be exploited? This is the challenge of this text, which highlights the density and diversity of these supply chains and provides orders of magnitude. While the technical, economic and human realities surrounding these chains are complex and inextricable, the conclusion they lead us to draw is simple: the generalization of AI is unsustainable.
Source: Après-demain
Author: Yannick Barthe
Language: French
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4405503570