AI alone won’t save the planet

[GENEVA] This year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where participants will address the theme of “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”, comes at a critical juncture for the planet. Ecosystems are straining under the pressure of climate change, and the interconnected cycles that maintain freshwater availability, soil moisture, ocean health, and plant growth are spinning out of balance at an alarming pace.

At least 420 million hectares of forest globally have been lost to deforestation since 1990, causing biodiversity loss to accelerate and fuelling climate volatility. Freshwater resources have declined so precipitously – owing to rising temperatures, groundwater mismanagement, saltwater intrusion, pollution, land degradation, and increased population density – that demand is predicted to exceed supply by 40 per cent by 2030. And wildlife populations in freshwater habitats fell by 85 per cent between 1970 and 2020.

The paradox is that we continue to degrade the systems that sustain life on Earth despite knowing more about their fragility than ever before. In the search for solutions, we often look to technology – especially artificial intelligence – as a panacea. But AI alone cannot save the planet. Instead, we must ensure that AI complements, rather than replaces, human capabilities to realise its full potential.