“AI can benefit people, planet and industry if it is done right, with sustainability as the starting point rather than as an afterthought,” stresses Aimee van Wynsberghe. “This means that before we rush to use AI for everything we can think of, we need to understand the impact of this technology on the environment to avoid causing even more environmental damage.”
The aim of this Sustainable AI conference is to get researchers talking about the environmental, social and economic costs of designing, developing, and using AI. The discussion will be directed at exploring the normative grounding of the value of sustainability, the strength of the concept of sustainability, how to measure environmental costs of AI, understanding the intergenerational impacts of AI, and, informing public policy guidelines for the green, proportionate and sustainable development and use of AI. In other program sessions, participants will have the opportunity to engage with thought leaders in the field and the presentation of an art installation by Thijs Biersteker on the topic of Sustainable AI.
For the conference, Aimee van Wynsberghe and her team collected contributions from computer sciences, philosophy, (applied) AI ethics, social sciences, law and policy, and others.
More information and registration: https://www.sustainable-ai.eu
About the Humboldt Professorship:
Aimee van Wynsberghe holds a Humboldt Professorship for Applied Ethics of AI at the University of Bonn since February 1, 2021. She addresses both the concept of sustainability–what values should an AI society sustain and how–as well as the technical dimension, i.e. how to make sense of the environmental impact of different AI methodologies. She is receiving 3.5 million euros from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for this purpose. The professorship is closely linked to the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) "Individuals, Institutions and Societies" at the University of Bonn.