AI/ML models are often exported. For example, large tech companies tend to congregate in particular parts of the world and sell software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, even surveillance-as-a-service in neatly-bound packages on a subscription basis to individuals, companies, and authorities around the world [1]. As a service/product/labour, AI/ML systems are also frequently exceptionalized where sleek models are intentionally portrayed to magically appear from thin air, skipping the commodity chain altogether. Software and virtual products are often decoupled from their material entanglements -- divorced from the vast lithium farms of the Atacama Desert, the cold data centers underneath the Alps, the data annotation centers scattered across the world, and the digital graveyards in the Korle Lagoon [2], [3]. As a feature of our capitalist society, all global supply chains have hidden components -- whether it is the obfuscation of sweatshops that operate on child labor or the efforts made towards washing the blood off of the diamond industry.

It was only a few years earlier that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a brand-new concept that was much too technical for anyone to anticipate how it will affect the world. Things have surely altered by the year 2019. It has changed the game for a variety of sectors, including significant participants in the mining industry. Small increases in yields, pace, and efficiency may have a huge influence on the mining sector, therefore increasing efficiency and productivity is critical for profitability. Now, let's take a look at how the companies which are using AI in the mining sector.

The climate emergency brooks no compromise: every human activity or artefact is either part of the solution or it is part of the problem. I've worried about the sustainability of consumer electronics for some time, and, more recently, the shocking energy costs of big AI. But the climate emergency has also caused me to think hard about the sustainability of robots. And, I'm ashamed to say, very little robotics research is focused on the development of sustainable robots. A search on google scholar throws up a handful of excellent papers detailing work on upcycled and sustainable robots (2018), sustainable robotics for smart cities (2018), green marketing of sustainable robots (2019), and sustainable soft robots (2020).

There are more than 1 million drones registered in the U.S. Most of them belong to people flying them for fun, but a growing number are used commercially. Companies including Amazon, UPS, Google and DHL are already exploring ways to deliver packages with drones instead of trucks. Our new research has measured how that shift would change how the U.S. uses energy, and the resulting environmental effects. Companies including Amazon, UPS, Google and DHL are already exploring ways to deliver packages with drones instead of trucks. We found that in some cases using electric-powered drones rather than diesel-powered trucks or vans could reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.