Currently with AI there is a lot of political division, you could say left vs right, yet in history with any new technology and innovation you will get a divide. The left will argue it's using the world's resources and bad for the environment, and the right will argue that way of thinking stifles innovation. There's an argument either way. Currently economists forecast that in the short term AI and data center build-out will use lots of commodities and resources and also cause inflation short term, but in the long run it will be deflationary. You can see the thesis behind that where it will use commodities and that demand alone will cause inflation, but then there is a lot of talk in society about the amount of fresh water that AI data centers are using, and with global warming being a major issue with wildfires across Europe, UK, US, Canada and a lot of the world which also supports the left's argument. A question is: Has the last 3 years of data center and AI infrastructure build-out since the inception of OpenAI model ChatGPT in 2023 accelerated global warming? These are a lot of the discussions currently with wildfires across the world, droughts, landslides in China, flooding; the news almost looks like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie.
One thing we know is this left vs right argument is not new, it's been going for a long time and will continue to grow the gap between and the wealth divide with it. But one thing with capitalism, it's like a train that can't be stopped, and when certain individuals have their own interests, then capitalism and innovation won't be stopped. In socio-economics it's called rational choice theory, and humans are often led by it. Things seem a long way away since 2020/2021 when climate change was so much on the agenda, electric vehicle rollout slowing down the production of oil, then the Ukraine war came in 2022 which caused lots of issues with energy prices and especially Europe's energy dependency on Russian oil from companies like Gazprom funded by the state. And is this what caused what seems like the world's U-turn on net zero?
Since then, more recently the Iran war has caused further issues with energy and oil prices, and that has caused a further push towards a greater production in oil. President Donald Trump has recently pushed for the UK to produce in the North Sea, which Prime Minister Andy Burnham also pushed for afterwards. Then another question is: Are these global wars such as in Ukraine and the Middle East pushing global warming and climate change even further? It's a very complicated situation, and humans will always debate, argue, and have bias either way: left vs right, anti-oil production vs pro-oil production. But one thing we do know is the climate issues with wildfires and all associated natural disasters and climate issues is a real threat to humanity. They once would say only a few years ago the biggest threats to humanity are World War Three, climate change, and AI. Well, it seems as if all three are merging together, especially with the use of AI and autonomous weapons in these global wars. One thing we do know is that as a global community we need to collaborate on these issues.