GTSW Event: Tracking the true planetary impact of the AI supply chain

When: Sep 23 · 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM BST
Where: Online

RSVP here on meetup.

By popular demand from the GTSW community to understand more about the environmental impacts of AI, Green Tech South West presents an online event featuring guest speaker Alistair Alexander, Researcher and Writer at Reclaimed Technologies.

From Stargate data centres to the Indigenous Arctic – tracking the true planetary impact of the AI supply chain.

The ecological cost of AI is likely to be much higher than you realise. AI’s environmental impacts go far beyond the operational costs of data centres, which is where the conversation about making AI more sustainable tends to focus.

In this talk, Alistair examines the semiconductor industry, which supplies the microchips powering AI’s processing capabilities. As these microchips grow in complexity, each generation requires more energy, minerals and water than the last, driving a ruinous cycle which appears to have no end in sight.

He’ll help us follow the AI supply chain to “megacluster” AI microchip factories responsible for spewing out forever chemicals into the land, such as in Taiwan, all the way up to First Nation lands in Canada and Greenland, targeted for their rich deposits of rare earths and copper.

This talk will also platform the voices of often unheard indigenous leaders, workplace organisers, lawyers and activists who are resisting AI’s toxic supply chain at every point along the way.

Alistair will explain how the AI boom is being built on a new wave of planetary pollution, extraction and exploitation at a scale the world has simply never seen before, that responsible technologies need to be aware of.

ABOUT ALISTAIR

Alistair writes, researches and engages diverse groups of people on the ecological and social impact of technology. He works with activists, academics and campaigners on reimagining our technology futures.

Alistair Alexander | LinkedIn
https://reclaimedsystems.substack.com/

His recent article for TruthDig on this topic: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-ecological-cost-of-ai-is-much-higher-than-you-think/.

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OUR SCHEDULE

🔓 12.25pm – Zoom event opens.
👋 12.30pm – Event starts with a welcome from your meet-up organisers.
📢 12.35pm – Our famous 60 second intros – a chance for attendees to introduce themselves, ask for help and tell us about something the group might find interesting
💚 12.45pm – Alistair’s talk
❓ 1.15pm – Questions
🗓️ 1.25pm – Round-up, other community notices and next event announcement

The event will be recorded and will be available along with the slides to view shortly afterwards.

This is a free online event streaming via the Zoom platform. We will send the link out closer to the event.

RSVP here on meetup.

SPONSORS

A huge thank you to our wonderful sponsors, without whom running Green Tech South West simply wouldn’t be possible 💚

Bristol Digital Futures Institute – Bristol Digital Futures Institute | University of Bristol
ADLIB Recruitment – www.adlib-recruitment.co.uk/