Can AI chats be used to make a positive climate impact leading to climate action?
𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐈 + 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 – 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐈 𝐛𝐨𝐭
I read the above sad news earlier today.
And this begs the question: 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘐 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵?
For someone like me who likes to maintain a good distance from digital at least for a good portion of each day – and thus, inevitably, stay closer to physical during this portion – it comes as a tragic shock that someone could take his life from chatting with a bot. And it concerns me even more when I read that 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘨𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘣𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦.
Our specialty focus areas include 
I have not read the transcripts of his conversation – not sure if they will be made public – but from the little I could glean from the news reports, it appears that he was having a sense of hopelessness and loss of control over climate change and global warming, and the chat bot, rather than leading him to something positive, was pushing him faster over the edge.
AI is here to stay, in some form or the other – old-fashioned fogies like me might view with scorn, but we are old and out of fashion, so who cares.
Kidding apart, the real question I have is: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐈 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬 (𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐝) 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?
AI is already being used extensively to support decarbonization and climate action for many verticals, but most of these are used by industries and institutions.
As I prepare to launch a new online education platform for climate action sometime soon ( www.clidemy.com for those who want to have a sneak peek), news items such as these make me think of what AI can do to tilt hundreds of millions – why, even a few billion people – 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥.
Will be wonderful to get your inputs on how AI can be leveraged to help the common women and men graduate themselves to a more climate and earth friendly lifestyle.
More about the news on the Belgian’s suicide from climate change chatting from here – https://lnkd.in/guus-XSy
See my LinkedIn post on this topic
