Earth day, AI, Effective Altruism, and Rajinikanth
My Earth Day pledge
Since graduating from college, I’ve tracked my career along a single axis: my impact on sustainability. There have certainly been ups and downs — my first job was in oil and gas extraction, for example — but from my perspective, the journey has been steadily upward. Today, I work in a climate-tech startup building AI systems for helping companies measure and reduce their carbon emissions.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about AI: the transformative impact it has had on my work, the broad excitement surrounding it, and the fact that nearly everything I do now involves it.
Building AI technologies also seems to attract incredible talent. Many of my close friends have joined the behemoths or launched their own ventures. Working on something so transformational seems extremely exciting to me — even if it’s not directly focused on sustainability or climate. The astronomical salaries are a draw, too. I tell myself I don’t care about the money, but when I hear the TC figures, I must admit I get second thoughts.
Then I read devastating news about the climate crisis, or the recent dismantling of climate policy, and it jolts me — “Focus on sustainability, Krishna. There’s not enough time.”
I’m currently reading Doing Good Better by William MacAskill, and there’s a compelling argument in there about “earning to give.” It’s the idea that I can still have an impact on sustainability — even if I’m not working on it directly — by donating large sums to effective causes. MacAskill talks about Dr. Greg Lewis, who donates significant amounts while working as a doctor in Britain, even though he’s not directly involved in medical efforts in Africa. Should I do the same?
In my case, however, I believe I can have a greater impact by working directly on the cause:
- I’m uniquely positioned to contribute because of my climate science knowledge from my PhD and my data science skills from past work.
- I have an extremely supportive family — my wife and parents.
- I think I’ll be more motivated and work harder if I’m contributing directly.
- Considering the counterfactuals, I believe I’ll do a better job building sustainability-related technologies than someone else, but a worse job building general AI than whoever would take my place.
- I’m already earning quite a bit and giving proportionally.
I waver on that last point sometimes. So, today — on Earth Day — I’m making a pledge:
I pledge to work on sustainability for the foreseeable future.
Announcing something so broadly can seem boastful. I believe, if anything, it’s the opposite. I once heard a talk by Rajinikanth, my childhood favourite hero, where he noted that human minds are fickle. What’s in my mind today can change tomorrow. But words — once spoken — cannot be undone. So I’m asking for help from all of you to keep me honest. Please remind me if you see me drifting from this pledge:
I pledge to work on sustainability for the foreseeable future.
Will you join me?
