Ahead of the United Nations climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, artificial intelligence is expected to dominate the agenda. The host has urged nations to commit to designing, powering, and deploying AI in ways that support climate action. Yet, as former California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols and sustainability advisor Jeremy Tamanini argue, industries worldwide are not doing nearly enough to use the technology to cut the greenhouse-gas emissions warming the planet. AI companies often promote optimistic claims about their potential to tackle climate change, but the evidence so far is far less promising.
Elsewhere, the climate conversation extends to the natural world. Tropical forests store roughly 40% of the carbon held on land, making them among Earth’s most important carbon sinks. ETH Zurich forest ecologist Daisy Dent is part of an international research network studying how plant and animal interactions help damaged forests recover. Her work suggests that large monoculture tree-planting carbon-credit programs may be costly mistakes, while more resilient, biodiverse forests can regenerate naturally within a few decades, rebuilding ecosystems that absorb substantial amounts of carbon dioxide.
In technology headlines, Nvidia is facing turbulence after CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy, prompting an internal investigation and a 5% drop in pre-market share trading. Huang’s children also work at the company. Meanwhile, Democrats are reportedly preparing a wave of investigations into Big Tech, beginning with Apple, Meta, and Elon Musk’s companies. Tesla is also discontinuing the Cybertruck, and experts are calling a series of recent internet-connected refrigerator hacks a wake-up call for the industry.
Source: The Download: empty AI climate claims, and an Nvidia investigation via MIT Technology Review