Stuart Kirk (“I don’t own greens funds because I want to live”, Opinion, June 17) questions the sustainability of investment in so-called artificial intelligence stocks on the basis of the possible threat AI poses should it run out of our control.
That ignores the fact that the greatest threats — from lethal autonomous weapons systems (often called “killer robots”) and the embedding of our current societies’ discrimination and biases — come from these systems doing what we tell them to do. But more, there’s the environmental impact. None of this is really “in the cloud”. It’s based in hard physical reality. That means massively destructive mining and energy use: 3 per cent of global electricity use and 2 per cent of carbon emissions are the responsibility of the digital world.
Natalie Bennett
Green Peer, House of Lords
London SW1, UK