What AI Can Do for Climate Change, and What Climate Change Can Do for AI

The April 4, 2022 report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes it clear that it is "now or never" for the planet. We are "firmly on track toward an unlivable world," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in releasing the report. There's every chance that global temperatures will soar by 3 degrees Celsius, twice as much as the agreed-upon 1.5 C limit. Unless we take drastic steps and cut down emissions by 43 percent within this decade, the full force of this existential threat will be upon us. In this context, it is interesting that some researchers have taken artificial intelligence--a technology often considered an existential threat in its own right– and tried to turn it into a vehicle for climate action.