AI in the Wild by Peter Dauvergne

Author:Peter Dauvergne [Dauvergne, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: artificial intelligence; AI; environment; environmental management; machine learning; deep learning; sustainability; sustainable development; climate change; drones; surveillance; conservation; environmental politics; political economy; unsustainable development; big data; ecology; deforestation; robotics; killer robots; smart products; smart cities; smart farms; automation; corporate responsibility; CSR; autonomous weapons; global governance; technology; consumerism; activism; United States; China; Russia; facial recognition; e-waste; mining; biodiversity; pollution; cyberweapons; war
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2020-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Turbocharging Profitability

Over the next two decades, artificial intelligence looks set to be a key tool of profitability for transnational corporations. This technology “holds vast potential . . . for ushering in a new era of growth for businesses,” argue Mark Purdy and Paul Daugherty, analysts at the consulting and technology firm Accenture. According to their modeling, by 2035, machine learning and intelligent automation have the potential to increase the rates of corporate profitability on average by 38 percent across 16 industries and 12 economies. If this were to occur, it would increase the value of global goods and services by $14 trillion by 2035, an amount equal to the combined GDPs of Brazil and China in 2017.

Across the world’s core industries, this would increase economic growth rates in 2035 by a weighted average of 1.7 percent, Purdy and Daugherty calculate. A good portion of this growth would advance social goods and services. Yet in this scenario, AI would do even more to fuel extraction, production, and retailing, boosting the 2035 growth rate of manufacturing by 2.3 percent; forestry, fisheries, and agriculture by 2.1 percent; wholesale and retail by 2.0 percent; and transportation and storage by 1.9 percent. Artificial intelligence, Purdy and Daugherty conclude, “offers unprecedented profitability opportunities.”52

Accelerating corporate profitability and global consumption with artificial intelligence would certainly bring societal benefits, create jobs, and generate new wealth. As even a cursory glance at the causes of today’s global environmental crisis confirms, however, this would also inevitably intensify the political and economic forces underlying biodiversity loss, tropical deforestation, marine plastic pollution, chemical contamination, and climate change.53 And it would surely take a heavy toll on workers and communities. Moreover, as I discuss in the next chapter, the diffusion of AI facial and emotion recognition technology could well end up helping states repress citizens who question the environmental and social costs of this growth trajectory.

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