Sustainability & AI: How would an AI that understands sustainability view the world we currently live in?

Exploring the intersection of AI, Philosophy and Sustainability…

Dhruv Toshniwal
Nov 8 · 8 min read

Preface:

In the first article, we explored what a philosophical AI would look like, and the role that philosophy has to play in programming the algorithms that run our world. In this article, we will explore what a sustainable AI would look like, the challenges it would face, and the impact it could have on our planet.

Before we delve into the meat of the matter, first things first let’s get to some definitions and clarify what exactly we are talking about, and why it is important…

Part I: Definitions of sustainability & raison d’etre

The very essence of sustainability can be found in the roots of the word, to sustain, derived from Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustineō, sustinēre (“to uphold”), from sub (“from below, up”) + teneō (“hold”).

In a nutshell, the sustainability I am referring to is the ability of the planet to sustain itself: to go on regenerating and providing natural resources (food, water, air, land, minerals, etc.) for generations to come…

Why is sustainability so important? Because if we don’t start to take better care of our planet, bad stuff can happen. Global warming may cause glaciers to melt and water levels to rise and we all drown. We may overheat as a planet and have inhumane weather patterns. These are all edge case (real) possibilities that are certainly not worth risking. Therefore, sustainability warrants considerable mind space, and it is worth spending significant resources preventing potential doomsday and taking care of our planet.

Part II: The industries that pollute the most.

There are several culprits. To name a few, in no particular order:

  1. Petroleum extraction, mineral mining, ore processing etc.
  2. Fashion and apparel
  3. Transport and logistics, commercial and freight air and road travel etc.

Since I come from a family that has a 43 year old family business in textiles, I will elaborate on the fashion and the apparel supply chain. We need to clothe 7.3 billion people, and each person owns at least X outfits on average (X being 10 at the lowest end of the spectrum). People need socks, underwear, pants, tshirts, jackets, caps, shoes etc. These goods need to be produced somewhere, preferably somewhere cost efficient. Apart from the raw materials (cotton, wool, polyester, viscose fiber, etc.) that go into making these goods, and the labor and power that is required to transform raw material into finished product, there is an entire supply chain of transport and logistics that must be administered to get the goods from point of manufacture to point of sale. It’s all a show that makes the world go around, and it could all be solved in one fell swoop if we were all willing to walk around naked like our caveman ancestors. But seriously, what can we do to give people food, water, clothing and shelter, without compromising the planet?

Part III: Business Model Innovation

I’ll borrow from the world of innovation consulting, and use a beloved concept to suggest a few ways the apparel industry can transform to remain profitable and sustainable (double bottom line). Before we get into potential solutions, let’s for a moment deconstruct the various apparel business models that we see in the world today.

  1. The Zara model — fast fashion (also: H&M, Primark etc.)
  2. The Uniqlo model — evergreen fashion (also: Everlane etc.)
  3. The Ralph Loren model — luxury fashion (also: Loro Piana and Kenzo)
  4. The Incotex model — slow fashion (also: Obataimu, aanswr, etc.)

What’s good for the planet, and who are the culprits? 1. Stinks, 2. I love 3. Is luxury fashion and will always be around but only affects the 1%. 4. I love. If 2 & 4 can focus on the masses and find ways to deliver quality, durable, technological advanced, comfortable and stylish product to consumers at fair prices, making and disclosing a fair margin (everlane style) and being resource efficient (factory to consumer with minimum middlemen, and optimal omni-channel distribution) then we have some hope…

So, what are some ways the apparel industry can reinvent itself to be greener:

1. Renewable energy: use solar, wind, hydro and alternative energy sources that aren’t derived from fossil fuels to run the factories.

2. Zero discharge: implement technologies to eliminate chemical discharge, particularly toxic water waste.

3. No single use plastics: cut out single use plastic packaging materials.

4. Upcycling 100% — ensure that everything that’s made has an alternative use and is put to use again and again…imagine a world where things change form, but are never discarded. And even when they are discarded, they are broken down to their base material and reused in another form. Think fossil fuel (petroleum) to PET bottle (plastic), used to serve water and recycled to make plastic pellets that are spun into yarn and blended with viscose to make synthetic fabrics that are used in 100% recycled polyester apparel such as the Lululemon yoga pants that you exercise in.

5. Make lowest carbon footprint the preferred consumer choice: Give consumers incentives to buy the item that’s best for the planet and make that cheaper than the alternatives. At the moment eco-garments cost more, just like healthy food costs more than junk food. Reverse the paradigm…

6. Provide total transparency on origin of products: see section IV on transparency.

7. Social responsibility: provide ethical worker conditions, equality of wages and fair labor practices.

8. Sustainable design of retail spaces: No air conditions and architecture based on ancient design principles to facilitate natural cooling of store spaces, and materials that absorb heat or insulate depending on the weather outside.

9. Many more that I’m certain a lot of startups, and large fashion companies are working on.

So there is hope. If we act…

In the first article of this multipart series, we touched upon the Bhagawad Gita, and the Hindu philosophical concept of interconnectedness. We are all one, and you are the center of your (the) universe. You may think that your actions and choices do not matter and are but a drop in the ocean. It’s just that if everyone were to think this way, where would we end up?

I’m here to tell you that you matter, and that the choices that you make in your daily life leave the planet changed in immeasurable and innumerable ways. Wake up to the bliss of universal connectedness, and make low carbon, low water consumption, sustainable choices in your daily life!

Part IV: Transparency

As Elvis Presley once sang, there is a need for “a little less conversation, a little more action.” And there is no better action, than informed action. For which transparency is a prerequisite.

Transparency involves letting the consumer know a lot more about the origin of products, their carbon and water footprint etc. it goes from raw material sources (where did the cotton come from?) to intermediate processes (how was the fabric woven?) to end product (where was the garment stitched, and how did it travel to the retail storefront?). It’s the A — Z of sustainability.

Blockchain technologies role in transparency cannot be understated. Could the decentralized storage of information on a timeless virtual (crypto) block be the solution to facilitate the creation of digital trust? Non-erasable (immutable) decentralized transactions that are stored on a distributed network of servers with nodes that are built on a protocol layer that can be governed in the future by smart contracts with voting rights administered to trusted independent parties, may just be the most efficient way to govern our most important decisions in the future.

It’s all about what Nassim Taleb would call “Skin in the Game”. Who has it? Where do the incentives lie? Does it make economic sense to save the planet? Do you make decisions that are self-serving, or earth-serving, and is there a healthy trade off between satisfying your present needs and preserving (or even better planting) resources for those of future generations?

Part V: Role of government, public policy & corporations

No discussion on sustainability and climate change would be conclusive without a mention of the impact that organizations such as the UN and the governments of each nation have to radically change the future of our planet through the policy that they choose to make (and the policy that they choose not to make). The same goes for public corporations such as Coca Cola, British Petroleum, Zara etc.,

Philosophically speaking, those that decide not to act (in favor of the environment, against large environmentally suspect corporations) are as guilty, if not more, than those that choose to act in ways that harm the planet.

We all know the corporations goal is to maximize profits, and that unless we find ways to align sustainability with the bottom line, there is no hope for companies to make planet friendly decisions. It’s up to us, as consumers, to drive this change. And it’s up to us, as leaders of companies, to drive our companies to lead the way…

As for governments, I haven’t much hope. Bureaucracy rules, and governments are slow to act. They have immense power and when they do flex their muscles they can make a dent in the universe. It’s just not that easy to awaken the beast and mobilize the public policy machine…it’s not a game that I’m familiar with playing and one that I’d leave to the Geneva Convention and more qualified bodies such as those…

Part VI: Autonomous environmentally sensitive AI

We’ve harped on the power of humans to shape the world we live in, and now it’s time to ask a different question. What if we were to take the human element out of sustainable decision making and let a decentralized AI programmed with smart logic and governed by distributed voting rights define the rules of the global production and consumption game?

For as we stated in the previous article, AI can be built to do anything, it’s emotionless (unless emotions are programmed into its DNA), and it’s hyper rational. Humans are wired to be emotional, irrational and often self-serving. It’s hard work for us to logical, and making rational decisions consumes our mental bandwidth. AI on the other hand can make an infinite number of rational decisions, almost effortlessly. Is it a tool that can be used to hack our way into saving the planet?

I’m just not sure how much of the above is fact, and how much fiction. I’d like to believe in a silver lining, and at the same time I’m weary of the silver bullet. Technology can most certainly enable, but can it be given autonomy to do more that enable and actually govern and dictate our daily decisions? Should it be given such power that has only been reserved for humans until date? Or would that be opening that Pandora’s box?

Part IX: Where is this all leading? Intermediate conclusions.

All things begin and end with understanding. The objective of the series of articles is to open our minds and raise our consciousness around the most pivotal issues surrounding our human existence. So let’s ask the fundamental questions, without seeking answers. Let the answers emerge…

The fundamental questions:

a) Who made the planet? How does it work? How does it regenerate itself?

b) Are we powerful or powerless? Do we have the ability to change the world in which we live?

c) Are we destroying our planet to a point of no return?

d) Does it even matter? Even if it doesn’t, why not save the planet (just because we can)?

e) Okay, it matters and we have (some) power and (some) degree of agency. Now what?

To be continued in a future article…

PS: This article was Part II of a multi-part series on AI, sustainability and philosophy.

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