The global pledge to use AI for climate good is a cruel joke

At COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, more than 190 countries were invited to endorse the Antalya Artificial Intelligence Pledge, which calls for clean-energy-powered data centers, internationally recognized standards, transparency reporting, and e-waste management, but states its objectives are "voluntary and non-prescriptive" and create no new obligations. The article notes the US, which has more data centers than any other country, has no official delegates at the summit after Donald Trump pulled the nation out of the global climate accord, and cites August research in a Nature journal finding AI causes more carbon emissions by boosting fossil fuel production than it avoids through renewable energy gains. The author concludes the pledge offers at best a placebo effect.