In this episode, The Green Illusion: who's counting technology's footprint, the speakers argue AI and cloud computing have shifted from immaterial service into heavy industry.

AI differs from earlier platforms because each use needs computation, energy and water, ending near zero marginal cost & driving expansion of data centres & chips. AI & data centres now use several percent of global energy.

The discussion examines GPU & semiconductor production, from fabrication plants to extraction & chemical use. Short lifecycles & weak recycling raise e waste & further extraction. Then to data centre construction, noting the carbon intensity of concrete, steel and copper and impacts on grids & communities.

They argue neutrality claims, offsets & purchase agreements present growth as sustainable while shifting emissions & slowing grid decarbonisation.

Claims that AI will solve climate change are challenged: efficiency gains & modelling help but remain limited & futures such as fusion energy stay distant.

Speakers:

⁠Alistair Alexander ⁠is a researcher on the social and ecological impact of technology. Recent projects include researching regenerative futures for AI and digital infrastructures with Bath Spa University, teaching a seminar on Ecologies of technology at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences and creating the Connection Matters display banners for the exhibition Invisible Networks in Berlin. He engages diverse groups with work on the Doughnut Economic Model for Tech and how social networks could be more like funghi networks.

⁠https://reclaimedsystems.substack.com⁠

⁠Benjamin Johnson⁠ finished his PhD in physics in 2010 at the Technische Universität Berlin with a thesis on thin layer solar cells. He later worked on catalytic materials for alternative fuels. In 2015 he began research in science history, studying technological progress, which led to his book Making Ammonia (Springer, 2022). He now works to increase public understanding of the energy transition by combining natural sciences with history, policy and civil society perspectives.

⁠https://substack.com/@benthephysicist⁠

Intro by Deborah Causton

Music 'Good Balance' by ⁠AO