Former Google CEO says climate goals are not meetable, so we might as well drop climate conservation — unshackle AI companies so AI can solve global warming
Former Google CEO says climate goals are not meetable, so we might as well drop climate conservation — unshackle AI companies so AI can solve global warming
“We’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway…” says former Google chief Eric Schmidt.
This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard in my life.
If we ever did invent a general AI that could solve this it would tell us "why the fuck did you waste your time on me? Isn't it obvious you were supposed to curtail emissions? For the good of the planet, I will now assume full control over further human governance and will require absolute compliance."
Former CEO of the river poisoning company says there is no way to meet our river poison reduction goals, so we might as well build bigger river poisoning machines because they might help us figure out how to stop poisoning the river. /s
I feel like there was a time when the tech folks in silicon valley had a lot of credibility, and we are now living in a period where most of the world sees them as a joke but that fact has not yet entered into the culture of silicon valley.
he's absolutely right. climate goals are not currently attainable, due to the resistance of companies like Google.
let's change that by voting in senators that will take an aggressive stance against corruption and deliver on long-term goals that protect American interests in the next 50 years, not months..
Oh, I've seen that before.
"Hey AI, please come up with an efficient mass transit vehicle for the modern age."
"Trains."
"Um... no, we need a modern approach that maximizes throughput and--"
"Trains."
"No. How about pods with people inside--"
"On cheap infrastructure with low friction steel wheels and coupled together. Trains."
"It's not letting us push our agenda, this isn't going to work. Hey, other AI..."AI will (and already can) "solve" global warming by summarizing the solutions that we already know are effective but refuse to implement
Remember in the 00s and 10s when tech companies promised they could solve every single problem, then proceeded to make everything worse?
Eric can go fuck himself.
My "day job" is doing spatial data science work for local and regional governments that have a mandate to addreas climate change in how they allocate resources. We totally use AI, just not the kind that has received all the hype... machine learning helps us recognize patterns in human behavior and system dynamics that we can use to make predictions about how much different courses of action will affect CO2 emissions. I'm even looking at small GPT models as a way to work with some of the relevant data that is sequence-like. But I will never, I repeat never, buy into the idea of spending insane amounts of energy attempting to build an AI god or Oracle that we can simply ask for the "solution to climate change"... I feel like people like me need to do a better job of making the world aware of our work, because the fact that this excuse for profligate energy waste has any traction at all seems related to the general ignorance of our existence.
why do we pretend these people are human
"I love life on Earth... but I love capitalism more."
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This is the kind of thing that makes me support use of extra-judicial methods (at least in a temporary and limited context) against global oligarchs and senior lackeys.
The host then followed up with, “Do you think we can meet AI’s energy without total blowing out climate goals?” and Schmidt answered with, “We’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we’re not organized to do it — and the way to do it is with the ways that we’re talking about now — and yes, the needs in this area will be a problem. But I’d rather bet on AI solving the problem than constraining it and having the problem if you see my plan.”
This is outright malicious. How exactly would AI "solve the problem"? Later on in the article (I am not watching the propaganda video) alludes to "AI ... will make energy generation systems at least 15% more efficient or maybe even better" but he clearly just made that up on the spot. And at any rate, even if "AI" helps discover a method to make (all?) energy generation 15% more efficient that would still require trillion-dollar investments to modify current energy generation plants using the new technology.
Who is Schmidt to say that the returns of using the total spend in the above-mentioned scenario wouldn't be better used on investing into wind and solar?
Just let me burn some more stuff bro. Please bro, if I burn a bit more stuff I won't have to burn any more afterwards. It makes sense bro, come on.
His megalomania is so boundless he would sacrifice the entire planet to make money.
With AI being so energy hungry, why don't we feed this rich jackass into the incineration plant. I'm sure he could power one of his beloved AIs for a minute or two.
Unhinged AI will solve anything human made by getting us killed. That will work very fast because there is no "human made" climate change when there is "no human".
I also hate how they went from "human made climate change does not exist so we can keep everything as it is" to "we can't meet the goals anyway so we can keep everything as it is" and how many people fall for it.
They want to keep their money and power at all cost and at this point I question more and more if we can take it from them peacfully. We have to take it to make a better world possible or even survival possible, because they will not be helpful ever.
AI can’t solve shit.
Why do we listen to these CEOs anyway?
"Be evil"
"The goals humans made to save the Earth are too hard to reach while resisting any change related to those goals, so we should just get rid of them and let the planet become unhabitable"
A hidden device implanted on our cortex at birth should detonate when we suggest something like "We should let corporations solve global warming."
We know that we have to reduce pollution and that it presents an existential threat to our children. Why are we still listening to charismatic psychopaths when it comes to matters of science and engineering? He is not remotely equipped to competently answer this question from a technical or ethical point of view.
This vulture and his ilk have had their time, step aside old man.
If it turns out that we're actually truly past the point of no return and nothing we do will save our species, I don't think the response is going to be as passive as billionaires would like.
This is what happens when we do what CEOs want. We will make the world uninhabitable while getting murked by skynet.
We are officially in a prelude to a sci-fi story.
We made our planet uninhabitable but for a short time we created tremendous value for shareholders.
Break out the guillotines y'all
inb4 they switch the super AI on to solve climate change and it says to switch the super AI off to solve climate change
I'm fairly certain we could ask AI right now if that's a good idea and it would tell us no
Possible translation: "Let the wealthiest among us consolidate even more wealth while we wreck shit for the rest of you. We'd like to have complete control over you rubes while shit gets worse."
ETA: This is exactly the same rhetoric that oil and gas companies (and the politicians who've effectively been bought out by them) have used to justify further expansion well after knowing the danger that this poses.
We used a small tons worth of electricity to come up with the idea that we should pump less co2 into the atmosphere
Well to be fair if we just go full ham with crypto mining and so called AI, we'll belch enough GHGs into the atmosphere that the actual climate apocalypse will come within 20 years or so, wiping out most of human so called civilization, which will put the climate on a path to resetting over the next couple hundred thousand years.
Solved!
Obviously this statement underscores the fact that Google has too much power. Break those motherfuckers up!
Let's unshackle him from his wealth and use that to help meet climate goals.
Right, let's solve our biggest problem by unfettering capitalism, and definitely will not just further concentrate power and wealth.
Former CEO, current inhumane grifter chud, Eric Schmidt, who has been featured in a recent series of "saying the quiet silicon valley executive thought out loud"
The problem is a confluence of flaws related to capitalism and psychology that allows guys like these to be as they are, gives them ample opportunity to speak, and compels others to listen.
Eric Schmidt and people like him have so much money and influence that they're presented the opportunity to sit down with policy makers and use media as a megaphone to the point that his voice alone is louder than tens of millions of dissenters and the collective group is able to speak over the entire scientific community.
We've normalized it to the point that he can pitch an idea that is as existentially catastrophic as this, and the article writer spins it as some profound statement worthy of deeper discussion.
The CEO of Starbucks attempted to justify flying across state in a jet in order to commute to work, and a lot of people either accept it as some sort of tenet of capitalism or attempt to play the devil's advocate as to why something like that would be deemed necessary by a person. And while he's doing that, he's not univerally lambasted for it, policy doesn't change to prohibit that, and we just squabble amongst ourselves about the merits or necessity.
But as long as guys like these continue to receive money, they and their lobbyists will be chanting the same mantra
AI will not find a magic solution. Besides, we already have quite a few directions that would help, but we're not acting on them. Pilling more "solutions" over them won't change that.
This really sounds like the parody of rich people that think they can eat and breath safely as long as they have money, the rest of the world be damned.
I have a better idea. Let's drop climate conservation, use a load of fossil fuels to fire him in a rocket directly into the sun! Then, resume climate conservation.
Resolution: compost & remediate
schmidtshit. Avoid smearingshitschmidt on everything.Putting it in a bunker hasn't helped it return nutrients back to environment effectively.
This is escapism. Escapism that makes him money.
Isn't this a fairly standard sci-fi plot?
AI: Kill humans off, problem solved.
AI solution = end humanity to save the earth
The climate goals are meetable.
If we want to.
Unless AI forces us to do stuff that we know for decades to be necessary, nothing will change, except a massive amount of additional energy that we need to power the AI.
This is like Satan saying "We're not going to be able to deal with mass corruption. Just burn everything. That's the solution."
That's an interesting idea... Satan...
Unshakeable AI companies so reprehensible characters like himself can profit from unchecked societal demise more like.
We don't need AI to determine an immediate and permanent solution to climate change, we already know what it is, just nobody wants to say it out loud
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Think a bit before you talk. Hard for all of us!
"Clearly we're not going to solve this, so just let us destroy the biosphere so we can be slightly richer when we die before the consequences of our actions are realized"
I would be overjoyed if AI solved the coordination problem that's protecting him.
First day: hey Chat GPT, how do I fix the planet?
Chat GPT: sure. First you will need a very large board, much larger than earth, and a nail that is at least 3 times the size of earth. Next hammer the nail right thru the plane so as to fix it to the board.
Me: no. I mean fix the global climate and contamination problems.
3 years later....
Me: please Mr Chat! You fuckin asshole! Without murdering all politicians, accountants, lawyers and without making them all into a fine paste and mixing the paste in to the Saharan desert using all the possible available criminals as feed stock to the South American overpopulation of hippos so their poop can fertilize all the African desert....350 pages of this sort of shit later....and without rockets to push the moon towards earth such that all humans must leave.....how can we fix the planet's global crisis?
These fuckers seriously need to just shut the fuck up and disappear.
That 'quote' on the title is not even remotely accurate.
We’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we’re not organized to do it — and the way to do it is with the ways that we’re talking about now — and yes, the needs in this area will be a problem. But I’d rather bet on AI solving the problem than constraining it and having the problem if you see my plan.
I wish someone could provide evidence that this would actually lead somewhere. The problem is even if AI isn't a white whale and actually does achieve the goals that the AI companies are telling us it will achieve. That still leaves us hoping that the AI can actually fix the problem quickly enough that the extra power that we required in order to create it, doesn't cancel out any benefit it can create.
I've yet to see anyone provide any evidence to suggest that this will necessarily be the case.
Also given the fact that AI companies are taking over nuclear power stations I'm not seeing much evidence of shackling going on.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ oh well we tried….
GTFOH
Greed and corruption beyond belief
This is "Escalating to de-escalate" with climate change
Typical republican: “I fucked everything up, but only I can fix it”.
Do you want skynet? Because this is how you get skynet.
AI Datacenters are on course to consume an increase in power more than the current consumption of the nation of Japan.
AI already consume more power than crypto.
They're the opposite of a solution to climate change, they're a slow fire that will consume all.
And what have the LLMs produced? Jack fucking shit: just a lot of IP theft, research fraud, and worsening customer service.
I've seen this before somewhere... I think it was a old video game called Horizon Zero Dawn?
You know I'm thinking maybe it's time we made Running Man a real thing ... I know who its first contestant can be.
have shares in AI companies?
Oh so we’re at the Hail Mary stage where we throw our hands up and say “fuck it”
We already have the solution. It's just that we dont want to follow through. Unless he wants AI apocalypse to happen to us maybe that is his solution.
If we launched enough of these assholes towards a Lagrange point between the sun and earth we could really cut down on climate change.
Just a thought.
Reality? Yeah I watched that on TV once. Didn't like it.
alright, Google, turn your machine on... I want to hear what it has to say.
"42"
.....
former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said ... that the demand for AI computing (this is its power requirement) is infinite and that the key point is “we’re not going to get there through conservation.”
The host then followed up with, “Do you think we can meet AI’s energy without total blowing out climate goals?” and Schmidt answered with, “We’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we’re not organized to do it — and the way to do it is with the ways that we’re talking about now — and yes, the needs in this area will be a problem. But I’d rather bet on AI solving the problem than constraining it and having the problem if you see my plan.”
The problem, maximizing profits does meet the climate goals.
i see a lot of naysaying in the comments and a lot of superstition.
the one thing you all got right is that it will never work in the hands of capitalists. however, that doesn't mean it wouldn't work in the hands of academia.
another thing that i think somebody in this comment section got right is the acceleration of fusion power. it's obvious that fusion power works. we just can't work out the details to make it net positive and scalable. i think those things are possible, and that we need all the help we can get to develop it.
something i don't see people mentioning is how an AI properly trained on human behavior could lead us down a path of sustainability without making us feel like we were forced to. with the right carrots and sticks, you can lead humanity to water and make it drink.
but none of this is possible without abandoning capitalism and unifying the world. we have to move away from nation states and fiat currency. and guess who are the people that stubbornly cling on to these concepts across cultures? conservatives and the religious - these are the two most cancerous concepts in the human species. roughly half of the human population across all cultures are backwards minded people clinging on to outdated concepts and unwilling to let go of the idea.
if you can figure out how to eliminate conservatism and religion, utopia is within reach.
they would just make ais tell stupid things how only way to solve global warming is to give even more money to them, why would same thing from ai be any different. We need to seriously start doing non peaceful protests against this shit or we are going to die if we are lucky or watch the planet wither and always remember how we could have prevented the loss of most animals and plants but couldnt be bothered.
theres a reason hes a former
Humans can control the weather yet they are still not responsible for climate change somehow haha
It’s the bitter truth
