Microsoft Pushes AI For Climate Solutions While Marketing To Oil Giants (theatlantic.com)
- Reference: 0174989405
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/13/147230/microsoft-pushes-ai-for-climate-solutions-while-marketing-to-oil-giants
- Source link: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/?gift=lhL3dXSYCcu9vqTqEbg0OHfJiu_TRdq079IHN4QaSAE&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
> Microsoft executives have been thinking lately about the end of the world. In a white paper published late last year, Brad Smith, the company's vice chair and president, and Melanie Nakagawa, its chief sustainability officer, described a "planetary crisis" that AI could help solve. Imagine an AI-assisted tool that helps reduce food waste, to name one example from the document, or some future technology that could "expedite decarbonization" by using AI to invent new designs for green tech.
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> But as Microsoft attempts to buoy its reputation as an AI leader in climate innovation, the company is also selling its AI to fossil-fuel companies. Hundreds of pages of internal documents I've obtained, plus interviews I've conducted over the past year with 15 current and former employees and executives, show that the tech giant has [1]sought to market the technology to companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron as a powerful tool for finding and developing new oil and gas reserves and maximizing their production -- all while publicly committing to dramatically reduce emissions.
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> Although tech companies have long done business with the fossil-fuel industry, Microsoft's case is notable. It demonstrates how the AI boom contributes to one of the most pressing issues facing our planet today -- despite the fact that the technology is often lauded for its supposed potential to improve our world, as when Sam Altman testified to Congress that it could address issues such as "climate change and curing cancer." These deals also show how Microsoft can use the vagaries of AI to talk out of both sides of its mouth, courting the fossil-fuel industry while asserting its environmental bona fides. (Many of the documents I viewed have been submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a whistleblower complaint alleging that the company has omitted from public disclosures "the serious climate and environmental harms caused by the technology it provides to the fossil fuel industry," arguing that the information is of material and financial importance to investors.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/?gift=lhL3dXSYCcu9vqTqEbg0OHfJiu_TRdq079IHN4QaSAE&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
And? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this supposed to be some sort of huge 'gotcha' moment? Are people really incapable of recognizing that multiple things can be true at once? "We think we need to taper off fossil fuels" and "we cannot simply stop next Tuesday" are both correct.
Re: And? (Score:2)
Except you missed the part where providing AI means using lots of resources. There's nothing inconsistent here, just a lot of lies, which has always been the big business SOP in general and the Microsoft MO in particular.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I think what bothers people more is the hypocrisy. But I don't really see hypocrisy. I see a very free market company that will sell to anybody who will buy. When they say we (governments) need to make a change, they are going against their own interest. But until that happens, they're gonna contract with oil companies.
It's not the most principled stance, but it's not hypocrisy either.
Re: (Score:1)
no hypocrisy, it's realistic we will be using fossil for decades. Thus far there is no serious plan for alternatives in USA, token gnat farts in hurricane like EV and Biden wind farm fiasco as they are done in USA don't matter
Re:And? (Score:4, Insightful)
> I don't really see hypocrisy
Maybe you need to get your eyes checked?
MS says they're committed to reducing emissions and suggests their AI could "expedite decarbonization" but their AI uses up huge amounts of power and they're marketing it to oil and gas companies as a way to find more fossil fuel deposits.
Saying you're committed to something in public while privately undermining it in the name of profit is the definition of hypocrisy.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you are reading this differently than it's meant. If they say "we are committed", it probably means they dedicated a team to it, and they send out some equivalent of corporate memos to remind the rest of the employees that it's a value they are supposed to be furthering. They aren't actually changing their actions except in the ways the team comes up with, and those ways are laughably small. Less "pivot to manufacturing windmills" and more "give a discount to manufacturers that ship their computers
Translation - AI-powered greenwashing (Score:4, Insightful)
New and improved FUD, now with 50% more AI.
Why can't AI be used for multiple applications (Score:2)
I don't understand the problem here. AI is a tool that can be used for lots of things, just like many other tools.
You know I'm beginning to think (Score:2)
this MicroSoft company might not be entirely on the up & up... What's next, anti-trust violations?
Re: (Score:2)
Where do they get all their money from? I remember when people were standing in line for Windows 95 on launch day. Does the average person even pay for a new version of Windows? Is it mostly from companies, education, and govt?
unplug your data center (Score:5, Insightful)
Straining the electrical grid for a useless fad isn't climate conscious.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeap!
> Brad Smith, the company's vice chair and president, and Melanie Nakagawa, its chief sustainability officer, described a "planetary crisis" that AI could help solve.
Maybe more like create a crisis or at least make it worse. What are they smoking? Or, maybe it's pure evil and they know they are lying. AI and climate sure sounds weird in the same sentence in this context.