The recent AI event in London seemed to send out contradictory messages – the AI is all about Elon Musk and ChatGPT; that AI is all about extreme scenarios of algorithms causing harm; that AI will mean people no longer need to work… 

Looking through a SolarPunk lens, AI could fit very well into a SolarPunk future:

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to play a significant role in helping to create a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future. In a solarpunk future, society has adopted environmentally sustainable technologies and practices. AI could be used in several ways to support this transition…

Looking from a Sidmouth perspective, AI is already very much with us, including: businesses and students using OpenAI chatbots such as ChatGPT to do research and create texts; the ubiquitous use of smart speakers, smart meters and the like; on your phone, on social media and online for better or worse; in banking – as all the banks have disappeared from the high street anyway…

And if we are going to be envisioning a ‘sustainable Sidmouth’, then there are all sorts of positive interactions with AI being actively considered, including managing environmental impacts and climate change, creating so-called Self Repairing Cities, looking at how AI can achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – but also developing hardware that requires less energy.

And as the SolarPunk movement is all about harnessing technology for a sustainable future, then clearly AI will be playing its part – even in Sidmouth