- On the occasion of the entry into the new decade, 20 Minutes is devoting a series of articles to the 2020s, new crazy years.
- The digital giants believe that technology will save us, but it is not so clear.
- AI can help reduce our environmental impact, but we should hurry to think about it.
A hundred years later, the “roaring twenties” are coming back to the tips of their noses. From the “roaring twenties” [the roaring 1920s], carried by a creative euphoria and an almost fanatic belief in the industrial revolution, we are entering the “worrying twenties”, as the big study called it. from Ipsos "Trend Obs 2020". All week long, 20 Minutes explores the future loved ones that await us by 2030.
On the menu for the decade: disenchantment, existential distress and fantasy of the apocalypse. In this episode, we explore how new technologies could save us.
Silicon Valley has never hidden its optimism, or rather its blindness, in the face of future problems. To believe these neo-Prometheans fed to science fiction, new technologies will have everything. The transhumanist fringe of the Valley thinks that humanity is strong enough to get out of all perilous situations thanks to innovation. Artificial intelligence to help us defeat death, a move to Mars to avoid the climate catastrophe, electronic chips to increase our brains.
Before each problem, technology would have a solution. Except when she creates a new problem herself. And the idea of changing Gafa's business model to become sustainable clearly does not help their wallets. On the occasion of our dossier "2020, the roaring new years", 20 Minutes studies the major questions posed by technologies. Will they save us or crash us?
Will AI be our salvation as Silicon Valley wants to believe?
Technoprophets who reign over Silicon Valley share this somewhat crazy belief. "They do not hesitate to say that climate change has already been resolved, in the sense that, at the rate where technology advances, a solution is inevitable - even, thanks to the appearance of a very specific and self-taught technology, I named artificial intelligence, or AI, ”writes David Wallace Welles in The Uninhabitable Earth . Needless to say, they are deluding themselves.
Artificial intelligence is not a magic wand. "Those who say that AI will solve all problems are either naive or have an interest because they work in the field," comments Raja Chatila, professor of robotics and ethics of artificial intelligence at the Sorbonne and director from the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (Isir).
Are tech giants in denial?
Difficult to answer in the negative. "Not only can artificial intelligence not solve everything, but it can itself become the problem," notes Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, president of the CNRS ethics committee and specialist in artificial intelligence. The real problem is the solution-seeking flight from Silicon Valley.
"Take the example of Elon Musk," continues the researcher. He thinks that AI is dangerous and that it will take power. His solution is to develop a device he wants to put in the brain to increase human intelligence. It's absurd because AI has intelligence only that which we put to it, it has no conscience ”. Worse, if his device [developed by Neuralink] ever works, it could introduce new knowledge into the brain that we would not have chosen. “What we would know would not be simply what we learned but what the implant put in our heads, insists Jean-Gabriel Ganascia. We are proposing a solution which is in reality a total subjugation ”.
Technology has effects that you don't always see. "As soon as we come up with a new solution, we create new problems," says Hubert Guillaud, editor-in-chief of InternetActu. Today we are overwhelmed by these new problems ”. Isn't the real answer rather in technological sobriety?
What are Gafa concretely doing to help the planet?
They communicate a lot, but in reality, their actions in favor of ecology do not weigh heavy. “Silicon Valley is not interested in the environment because it is not in line with its economic model, insists Hubert Guillaud. Facebook and Google are making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint [Facebook had installed a datacenter in Ireland powered by 100% clean and renewable wind energy], they are implementing technical solutions with the aim of saving energy, server and machinery ”. Other than that, not much.
How could technology help save the planet?
Limit our CO2 emissions, better manage our water and food resources, streamline road traffic, reduce our energy consumption ... In the field of ecology, artificial intelligence seems underused. "AI can be of great help to save money, spend less energy," points out Jean-Gabriel Ganascia. Using sensors, it can help regulate heating in buildings, monitor forests and traffic. ”
By interpreting this information, AI could help reduce our energy consumption and our environmental impact. It is an asset to rationalize our consumption. Twenty renowned researchers in the field of artificial intelligence published an article on the subject in 2019 - "Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning". They update all the applications of machine learning (one of the fields of study of AI) to limit global warming. Electricity, transport, agriculture, industry, finance… the fields of application are vast. But everything remains to be done.
Could AI predict the effects of global warming?
One should not be amazed by the capacity of artificial intelligence. If the AI is able to make predictions, it is not an oracle. It would have been too simple ... "The problem with climate change is that we have no data," explains Raja Chatila. On which data passed and available in quantity could we make a statistic? Not a lot. Given the complexity of the climate, it's hard to make simple predictions. ” We can't already predict if it will rain in ten days, so anticipate the effects of global warming…
"The phenomena are very complex and very poorly modeled, with lots of interactions, feedback loops and things that are not mastered and controllable," continues the director of the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (Isir). If we have a lot of data, we can predict the future, provided that it is the result of this data. ” However, the very principle of climate change is that the future will not look like the past.
"When we say:" The sea level will rise ", we predict that global warming will melt the ice, explains Raja Chatila. And perhaps this melting of the ice, by cooling the ocean, will also have an effect on ocean currents which are very difficult to model. They may cause unpredictable new climate changes. We didn't take it into account because we don't have the data to do it ”. AI will not help us predict the effects of global warming. In this area, the future is far too complex.
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- Environment
- Global warming
- Artificial intelligence
- Gafa
- Silicon Valley