The sustainable AI development contradiction: Chinese policy on sustainability and the costs of AI development

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The ecological cost of developing artificial intelligence, particularly the cost caused by data centers, has been detailed by many scholars, but few have outlined what this implies for specific countries. This review paper brings together reporting on the forecast of ecological harm to China from various forms of industrialization, including climate change, and the ecological impact of AI development. The author suggests that relying on “AI for sustainability” as a solution to ecological problems is a type of “moral hazard,” borrowing a metaphor from economics, because treating AI as insurance against climate change may inhibit governments from taking necessary action now to move toward negative carbon emissions. Considering the situation of China, the author contends that the actual environmental toll of AI presents a significant ecological problem. Three interconnected ecological problems are reviewed: AI’s carbon emissions, AI’s water costs, and ecological devastation tied to AI hardware production and disposal. Together with forecasts from the World Meteorological Organization’s, this bodes poorly for the future of China. Using the political philosophy of the Communist Party of China, the author argues that it is in the stated interest of the People’s Republic of China to pursue limited AI with caution, fully attuned to the increased harm that industrialism poses to the People, and oriented toward a truly ecologically harmonious future.