Trump’s tax bill seeks to prevent AI regulations. Experts fear a heavy toll on the planet | Artificial intelligence (AI)
UThe Republicans of the S are pushing to adopt a major expenditure bill which includes provisions aimed at preventing states from promulgating regulations on artificial intelligence. Such wild growth in AI will make a heavy price on the climate of overheating dangerously in the world, the experts warned.
About 1 billion tonnes of carbon carbon dioxide at the planet should be issued in the United States just from the AI during the next decade if no restriction is imposed on the enormous consumption of industry electricity, according to estimates by researchers from Harvard University and provided to the Guardian.
This period of 10 years, a period of time in which Republicans want a “break” of regulations at the state level on AI, will see as much electricity in data centers for AI as the United States will add more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than Japan each year, or three times the annual total of the United Kingdom.
The exact quantity of emissions will depend on the efficiency of power plants and the quantity of clean energy used in the coming years, but the blocking of regulations will also be a factor, said Gianluca Guidi, a scholar visiting the Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health.
“”By limiting surveillance, this could slow down the transition of fossil fuels and reduce incentives to an energy dependence of the more energy -efficient AI, “said Guidi.
“”We are talking a lot about what AI can do for us, but not enough of what it does to the planet. If we are serious about using AI to improve human well-being, we cannot ignore the growing assessment that it undergoes the stability of the climate and public health. »»
Donald Trump has promised that the United States will become “the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto” and began to sweep the railings around the rules of development and demolition of the AI limiting the pollution of greenhouse gases.
The “Big Beautiful” reconciliation bill adopted by the Republicans in the House of Representatives would prevent states from adding their own regulations to the AI and the GOP controlled Senate is about to pass its own version by doing the same.
The use of without restrictions is ready to bring a considerable blow to efforts to fight against the climate crisis, however, by causing increasing electricity consumption from an American grid still highly dependent on fossil fuels such as gas and coal. The AI is particularly eager for energy – a chatgpt query needs about 10 times more electricity than a Google research request.
Carbon emissions from data centers in the United States have tripled since 2018, with a next Harvard research document noting that the largest “hyperscal” centers now represent 2% of all American electricity consumption.
“The AI will change our world,” predicted Manu Asthana, Managing Director of PJM Interconnection, the largest American network. Asthana estimated that almost any future increase in electricity demand will come from data centers, adding the equivalent of 20 million new network houses over the next five years.
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The explosive growth of AI has worsened the recent erosion of climate commitments made by large technological companies. Last year, Google admitted that its greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 48% since 2019 due to its own incursion into AI, which means that “the reduction of emissions can be difficult” as AI sets up.
IA supporters and some researchers have argued that AI’s progress will help climate struggle by increasing the effectiveness of network management and other improvements. Others are more skeptical. “It is only a greenwashing maneuver, quite transparent,” said Alex Hanna, director of research at the AI Research Institute. “There have been absolutely absurd things on this subject. Big Tech is in grogging the present for a future that will never come.”
Although no state has yet established specific green rules on AI, they can seek to do so taking into account the reductions in federal environmental regulations, state legislators urging Congress to rethink the prohibition. “If we expected a creation of rules at the federal level around the data centers, he is surely out of the table now,” said Hanna. “Everything was quite alarming to see.”
However, republican legislators are not discouraged. The proposed moratorium has authorized a major obstacle during the weekend, when the Senate parliamentarian decided that the proposed ban on state and local AI regulations can remain in Trump tax and spend mega-bills. The Senator of Texas Ted Cruz, the Republican who chairs the Senate Commercial, Science and Transport Committee, changed the language to comply with the Byrd rule, which prohibits “foreign questions” from being included in such expenditure invoices.
The provision now refers to a “temporary break” on the regulations instead of a moratorium. It also includes an addition of $ 500 million to a subsidy program to extend wide -band Internet access across the country, preventing states from receiving these funds if they try to regulate AI.
The pause of the proposed AI Regulation has aroused generalized concerns on the part of the Democrats. The Senator of Massachusetts, Ed Markey, a climate hawk, says that he has prepared an amendment to remove the “dangerous” provision of the bill.
“The rapid development of artificial intelligence already has an impact on our environment, increasing energy prices for consumers, supporting our network’s ability to keep lights on, emptying local water supply, spitting toxic pollution in communities and increasing climate emissions,” Markey told Guardian.
“However, instead of allowing states to protect the public and our planet, the Republicans want to prohibit them from regulating AI for 10 years. He is short -sighted and irresponsible. “
The member of the Massachusetts Congress, Jake Auchincloss, also described the proposal “a terrible idea and an unpopular idea”.
“I think we must realize that AI will suffocate in the rapid order of many dimensions of health care, media, entertainment, education and simply to proscribe any regulation of AI in any case of use for the next decade is incredibly reckless,” he said.
Some Republicans have also opposed the disposal, notably the senator of Tennessee Marsha Blackburn and the Senator of Missouri Josh Hawley. An amendment to withdraw the break from the bill would require the support of at least four Republican senators to adopt.
Hawley would be willing to introduce an amendment to delete the layout later this week if it is not eliminated in advance.
Earlier this month, Georgia’s deputy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, admitted that she had missed the provision in the version of the Bill Chamber and that she would not have supported the legislation if she had seen it. The far -right Caucus Freedom Caucus, of which Greene is a member, also spoke out against the break of the AI regulation.
