Unravelling AI’s Role in Sustainability
In this article from strategic partner ACCA, it considers the intersection of Artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability, including the relationship between AI and sustainable development, the changing organisational context within sustainability reporting, and the current challenges and opportunities of using AI to support organisations’ sustainability objectives.
AI will not necessarily lead to environmental ruin or proliferation, discrimination or equality, enhancement or overreliance - it can do each of those and more.
This the first of six laws considering the role of technology in society – set out by Melvin Kranzberg, President of the Society for the History of Technology, in 1985. His insight effectively captures the challenge of understanding the relationship between AI and our pursuit of sustainability objectives.
Technology is neither good nor bad: there’s no deterministic conclusion that we should draw from the trajectory that AI will follow, the way in which it will impact our sustainability goals, or how we pursue them.
Nor is it neutral: any technology is as impartial as its human user. If we don’t selectively apply its capabilities and consider the potential implications – AI can propagate a variety of unwanted outcomes or unintended consequences.
AI holds tremendous potential – but without due consideration, AI technologies can also threaten progress towards achieving some of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
