There is a green elephant in the room with government’s AI plans

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Responding to the news that Government plans for AI to be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, Green Party Co-Leader, Adrian Ramsay MP, said, 

“The potential for AI is huge and Greens welcome the potential it holds, especially in research and innovation.
However, this plan comes almost exclusively from engagement with industry and investors and does not account for the views of the public, or the people working in our public services, about where AI should or should not be used. If AI is to serve our public services, its uses must instead be driven by the voices of those most affected by this technology development and deployment. This of course has to include addressing concerns around privacy and rights over their information”

He continued, “In addition, there is a green elephant in the room with neither government nor business truly addressing the environmental impacts of AI. One estimate said AI-related infrastructure may soon consume six times more water than Denmark, a country of 6 million people. And a request made through ChatGPT consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search. Yet the action plan does not address these crucial questions of environmental sustainability, let alone the debate about the relative gains from AI versus these obvious harms.”

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