My dog contributes to climate change. I've been a vegetarian for over a decade. It's not because of my health, or because I dislike the taste of chicken or beef: It's a lifestyle choice I made because I wanted to reduce my impact on the planet. And yet, twice a day, every day, I lovingly scoop a cup of meat-based kibble into a bowl and set it down for my 50-pound rescue dog, a husky mix named Loki. Until recently, I hadn't devoted a huge amount of thought to that paradox.

In September, a unique chase took place in the skies above Easter Island. From a rented jet, a team of researchers captured a satellite's last moments as it fell out of space and blazed into ash across the sky, using cameras and scientific equipment. Their hope was to gather priceless insights into the physical and chemical processes that occur when satellites burn up as they fall to Earth at the end of their missions. This kind of study is growing more urgent. The number of satellites in the sky is rapidly rising--with a tenfold increase forecast by the end of the decade. Letting these satellites burn up in the atmosphere at the end of their lives helps keep the quantity of space junk to a minimum.

The rise of AI comes with a growing carbon footprint and an increased demand for electricity. Analysts project that AI could drive up data centers' energy consumption by 160% this decade. So how worried should we be about AI's electricity demands and carbon emissions? How can this technology be used responsibly in the face of the climate crisis? Hear from editor-at-large David Rotman, senior AI reporter Melissa Heikkilä, and senior editor for energy James Temple for a conversation exploring the energy trade-offs involved in AI.

Soon, the menu in your favorite burger joint could include not only options made with meat, mushrooms, and black beans but also patties packed with lab-grown animal cells. Not only did the US just approve the sale of cultivated meat for the first time, but the industry is in the process of raising billions of dollars to bring its products to restaurants and grocery stores. In theory, that should be a big win for the climate--greenhouse-gas emissions from the animals we eat account for nearly 15% of the global total. But whether cultivated meat really is better for the environment is still not entirely clear. Two weeks ago, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced his grand strategy for AI policymaking at a speech in Washington, DC, ushering in what might be a new era for US tech policy.

Illustrate the link: Many types of work, from highly theoretical to deeply applied, can have clear pathways to climate impact. Some links may be direct, such as improving solar forecasting to increase utilization within existing electric grids. Others may take several steps to explain, such as improving computer vision techniques for classifying clouds, which could help climate scientists seeking to understand fundamental climate dynamics. Consider your target audience: Try to convey with relative specificity why and to whom solving the problem at hand will be useful. If studying extreme weather prediction, consider how you would communicate your key findings to a government disaster response agency.

The application of models to assess the risk of the physical impacts of weather and climate and their subsequent consequences for society and business is of the utmost importance in our changing climate. The operation of such models is historically bespoke and constrained to specific compute infrastructure, driving datasets and predefined configurations. These constraints introduce challenges with scaling model runs and putting the models in the hands of interested users. Here we present a cloud-based modular framework for the deployment and operation of geospatial models, initially applied to climate impacts. The Climate Impact Modelling Frameworks (CIMF) enables the deployment of modular workflows in a dynamic and flexible manner. Users can specify workflow components in a streamlined manner, these components can then be easily organised into different configurations to assess risk in different ways and at different scales. This also enables different models (physical simulation or machine learning models) and workflows to be connected to produce combined risk assessment. Flood modelling is used as an end-to-end example to demonstrate the operation of CIMF.

The Ada Lovelace Institute (Ada) is hiring a Visiting Senior Researcher to lead a research project exploring the climate impacts of AI and data-driven systems. This project fits within our programme of work around Ethics and Accountability in Practice, and will explore how regulators, industry practitioners and researchers can evaluate and assess the climate impact of an AI system at various stages of its lifecycle.The roleAddressing the environmental impact of data and AI is critical to ensuring a future in which data and AI work for people and society. By one estimate, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are projected to account for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, with nearly half of this use predicted to come from data centres. There is an urgent need for developers, practitioners, procurers and researchers of AI and data-driven technologies to evaluate and account for the potential climate impact of their systems.The role of Visiting Senior Researcher, Climate and AI, provides an excellent opportunity for a mid-career researcher to craft and execute a research project on in a dynamic and energetic policy and practice-facing organisation. This is a new position created as part of our 2021-2024 strategy, which organises Ada’s research under five programmatic priorities:  the Future of Regulation; Ethics & Accountability in Practice; Public Sector Use of Data & Algorithms; Biometrics; and Health Data and COVID-19 Technologies.To date, our Ethics & Accountability in Practice programme has focused on developing methods for AI and data practitioners and regulators to evaluate and assess potential risks, harms and impacts of AI and data-driven technologies. This role will be expected to expand the focus of this work to develop and test methods, tools and practices for evaluating climate impacts for public and private-sector organisations.This project is made possible by a grant from the Generation Foundation. For further information about the role (including details of the outputs this role will deliver, and what a typical day could look like for you), please click here to download the full job description.About youYou are an experienced researcher or professional who may have a background researching for an academic organisation, policy department or a regulator, a tech company, research institute or charity. You are curious and passionate about the issues which arise at the intersection of technology and society, and are committed to bringing an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens to understanding them. Importantly, you’ll be comfortable taking initiative, working independently and to short deadlines at times.You’ll enjoy working in a team environment, willing to jump into projects and keen to explore areas of policy, technology and practice that you don’t already understand. You’ll appreciate the importance of high standards of rigour in research, but also want to think creatively about communicating and influencing in novel ways. How to apply The closing date for applications is 09:00AM BST on 25 April 2022, with interviews expected to take place in the first weeks of May 2022. The online application process will ask that you complete 4 questions (no more than 250-word answers for each) relating to your background, skills, and interest in this role, as well as requiring you to upload an up-to-date copy of your CV.  The Applied platform lets you save an application and resume it ahead of submitting before the application deadline.After the deadline closes, we will shortlist candidates and update you on whether your application was successful. Applicants moved to the interview stage should expect: We aim to give you at least a week's notice of an interview, which may involve preparing a presentation or completing a writing exercise.  To participate in an hour long interview (with a panel made up of Ada staff and often an external partner), with the potential for a follow-up/second round of interviews.  We strongly encourage applicants from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the research, policy and technology sectors (for example those from a marginalised community, those who did not go to university or had free school meals as a child). We are committed to tackling societal injustice and inequality through our work, and believe that all kinds of experiences and backgrounds can contribute to this mission. The Ada Lovelace Institute The Ada Lovelace Institute is an independent research institute funded and incubated by the Nuffield Foundation since 2018. Our mission is to ensure data and artificial intelligence work for people and society. We do this by building evidence and fostering rigorous debate on how data and AI affect people and society.  We recognise the power asymmetries that exist in ethical and legal debates around the development of data-driven technologies and seek to level those asymmetries by convening diverse voices and creating a shared understanding of the ethical issues arising from data and AI. Finally, we seek to define and inform good practice in the design and deployment of AI technologies.   The Institute has emerged as a leading independent voice on the ethical and societal impacts of data and AI. We have built relationships in the public, private and civil society sectors in the UK and internationally. Please find details of our work here. Our research takes an interconnected approach to issues such as power, social justice, distributional impact and climate change (read our strategy to find out more), and our team have a wide range of expertise that cuts across policy, technology, academia, industry, law and human rights.  We value diversity in background, skills, perspectives, and life experiences. As part of the Nuffield Foundation, we are a small team with the practical support of an established organisation that cares for its employees.    

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates public company securities, recently proposed its own climate impact reporting requirement. Many US public companies already voluntarily publish information on this topic for shareholders who have been asking for those details. But various state GOP attorneys general are already questioning the SEC's ability to impose the requirement, asserting that such a requirement lacks materiality. So there's a distinct possibility the SEC's proposal will get tied up in litigation, at least for now. Back in September 2021, Addisu Lashitew, nonresident fellow, global economy and development at The Brookings Institution, characterized the US stance on the climate impact reporting issue as laissez faire.

The "race" for dominance in AI is far from fair: Not only do a few developed economies possess certain material advantages right from the start, they also set the rules. They have an advantage in research and development, and possess a skilled workforce as well as wealth to invest in AI. We can also look at the state of inequity in AI in terms of governance: How "tech fluent" are policymakers in developing and underdeveloped countries? What barriers do they face in crafting regulations and industrial policy? Are they sufficiently represented and empowered at the international bodies that set rules and standards on AI?

The "race" for dominance in AI is far from fair: Not only do a few developed economies possess certain material advantages right from the start, they also set the rules. They have an advantage in research and development, and possess a skilled workforce as well as wealth to invest in AI. We can also look at the state of inequity in AI in terms of governance: How "tech fluent" are policymakers in developing and underdeveloped countries? What barriers do they face in crafting regulations and industrial policy? Are they sufficiently represented and empowered at the international bodies that set rules and standards on AI? At the same time, there is an emerging challenge at the nexus of AI and climate change that could deepen this inequity.