aceAI is guzzling energy for slop content – could it be reimagined to help the climate?
Abstract: Artificial intelligence is often associated with ludicrous amounts of electricity, and therefore planet-heating emissions, expended to create nonsensical or misleading slop that is of meagre value to humanity. Some AI advocates at a major UN climate summit are posing an alternative view, though – what if AI could help us solve, rather than worsen, the climate crisis? The “AI for good” argument has been made repeatedly at the Cop30 talks in Belém, Brazil, with supporters arguing AI can be used to lower, rather th…
By 17 Nov 2025, reporting from Cop30 in Belém, Brazil noted that artificial intelligence was widely associated with heavy electricity consumption to produce low-value slop content, creating planet-heating emissions. At the same summit, some advocates advanced a counter-narrative that AI could be applied to climate solutions.
The tension matters because it pits a documented energy cost against a proposed climate benefit that had not been demonstrated in the supplied text. Whether AI deployment results in net emissions increase or decrease remains uncertain without measured data on specific interventions, populations, and outcomes.
- The article frames the dominant use case as creation of nonsensical or misleading slop of meagre value to humanity
- The alternative framing was raised at Cop30 talks in Belém, Brazil
- Supporters described their position as AI for good
Generative AI systems expend large amounts of electricity and associated planet-heating emissions to produce nonsensical or misleading slop content
Sources
- JournalismThe Guardian2025-11-17
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