AI and Sustainability: Balancing Innovation with Planetary and Social Well-being

Date: October 10th, 2024 | Time: 6:00 PM | Location: The McGill Faculty Club | Free Event 

As technological innovation continues to transform our world, there is growing optimism about AI’s potential to contribute to sustainability and climate action. In engineering and urban planning sectors, AI is paving the way for more efficient resource management, optimized infrastructure design, and smarter city planning, all of which are essential for building sustainable and resilient communities.

However, alongside these hopes come significant concerns about the unintended consequences of rapid technological advancement. In this year’s keynote, Prof. Victor Galaz will challenge the prevalent notion that AI can be an unequivocal force for good in the face of climate and environmental crises. While AI has promising applications, its unchecked deployment could accelerate environmental degradation, create intensify inequalities, and exacerbate risks to our planet and its inhabitants.

Following the presentation, an expert panel will weigh the potential of AI for social good, against its possible pitfalls. Discussions will focus on harnessing AI’s promise for creating resilient, sustainable, and equitable futures while also considering the ethical and societal implications of its use.

Prof. Victor Galaz

Stockholm Resilience Centre

Victor Galaz is associate professor in political science at the Stockholm Resilience Centre , and programme director of the Beijer Institute’s Governance, Technology and Complexity programme. He is also co-Editor-in-Chief for the journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (COSUST), and was a Board Member of The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) between 2021-2023.

His research explores the political and governance challenges created by rapid global change, including globally networked risks, governance dimensions of “planetary boundaries”, the interplay between financial systems and Earth system dynamics, and the sustainability implications of novel technologies.