Does AI Have to Be Bad News for the Planet? (with Meghan Busse)

Are you hurting the planet every time you query a chatbot? Economist Meghan Busse suggests that may be the wrong question. In this episode, we zoom out from the usual concerns about frivolous queries (and, for that matter, resource‑hungry data centers) to ask an even more basic question: is intense demand for AI locking us into decades of additional fossil fuel use, or is it accelerating investment in clean energy? Busse helps us sort real climate levers from symbolic ones, and explains why AI’s ultimate impact on the planet will likely come down to how we build and power it.

Life, Automated is a production of the Ryan Institute on Complexity, at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. The host is Jess Love, senior director. Distributed by KQED.

Production: Jesse Dukes

Music: Steven Jackson

Administration and Recording: Stacia Sliger

Recording Engineering: George Christensen and Will Feeney

Marketing: Ananya Mallapragada

Featured Guests: 

Meghan Busse 

Further Reading:

Public attitudes toward climate policy, technology, and the environment — AP-NORC

Utah Senate President Loses Primary After Data Center Backlash — Jack Healy, New York Times