On: AI Could Help Fossil Fuel Companies Create More Emissions

The headline, of course, is designed to make one gasp, to throw up hands in despair. “AI helps fossil fuels!” The immediate, almost visceral reaction is to condemn the technology, to see it as another tool in the hands of destruction. But that’s too easy, isn’t it? It’s too neat, too convenient a narrative.

The detail that gnaws at me is “by making the fossil fuel industry more productive.” Productive. That’s the word. It’s not that AI is inherently evil, or even inherently carbon-intensive in its own right, though the data centres are a problem we’re only just beginning to reckon with. No, it’s that it optimizes existing systems. It finds efficiencies. It makes the machine run smoother, faster, with less waste.

And if the machine it’s optimizing is one designed to extract and burn fossil fuels, then yes, it will make that machine better at its job. The problem isn’t the AI, then, is it? The problem is the machine itself. The plain question that hangs in the air, then, is this: if we had an AI that could make a renewable energy grid 5% more productive, would we be cheering? Or would we still be wringing our hands over the AI? It’s not about the tool; it’s about what we choose to build with it. And that choice, that fundamental design, is still ours. It always has been.