Hans Jonas, in The Imperative of Responsability, emphasized that the greater the power of technology, the greater the risks and the ethical responsibility involved. In this chapter, we will examine how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the most powerful contemporary technologies, amplifying this ambivalence: while it can help mitigate crises, it also intensifies Anthropocene dynamics such as massive energy consumption, mineral extraction, and social inequalities. On the one hand, as we shall see, the material infrastructure of AI (data centers, global networks, and the extraction of rare minerals) generates profound environmental and social costs. On the other hand, AI holds the potential to predict disasters, optimize the use of renewable energy, and, as we will closely analyze, model climate forecasting scenarios. Within this paradox, the need for a forward-looking ethics becomes evident—one grounded in Jonas’s notions of the “heuristics of fear” and “comparative futurology,” capable of guiding the use of AI beyond technofetishism, while prioritizing planetary responsibility, climate justice, and sustainability.

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The Ethically Ambivalent Role of AI in the Environmental Emergency: On Comparative Futurology applied to Climate Forecasting

  • Jelson R. de Oliveira

摘要

Hans Jonas, in The Imperative of Responsability, emphasized that the greater the power of technology, the greater the risks and the ethical responsibility involved. In this chapter, we will examine how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the most powerful contemporary technologies, amplifying this ambivalence: while it can help mitigate crises, it also intensifies Anthropocene dynamics such as massive energy consumption, mineral extraction, and social inequalities. On the one hand, as we shall see, the material infrastructure of AI (data centers, global networks, and the extraction of rare minerals) generates profound environmental and social costs. On the other hand, AI holds the potential to predict disasters, optimize the use of renewable energy, and, as we will closely analyze, model climate forecasting scenarios. Within this paradox, the need for a forward-looking ethics becomes evident—one grounded in Jonas’s notions of the “heuristics of fear” and “comparative futurology,” capable of guiding the use of AI beyond technofetishism, while prioritizing planetary responsibility, climate justice, and sustainability.