AI is revitalizing the fossil fuels industry, and big tech has nothing to say for itself

Greetings, and welcome to another edition of Blood in the Machine. This week, a grim subject; how the tech giants, once heralded as champions of clean energy and low-carbon solutions, are helping to automate, and exacerbate, the climate crisis. As always, thank you for reading, subscribing, sharing, and supporting this project. Paid subscribers are what make this all possible—if you are able, a paid subscription, at less than the cost of a beer a month, means I can keep doing this writing. I’m grateful for each of you. Onwards, and hammers up.

Last week, tech reporter Karen Hao dropped a big, thoroughly reported story about how Microsoft is trying to have it both ways when it comes to climate. The software giant has positioned itself as a leader in sustainability, championing its green initiatives and publicizing the ways its AI technology might be used to reduce carbon emissions—all while selling AI tools to oil and gas companies to help them accelerate fossil fuel extraction.

The AI climate innovations are largely speculative, but the value of those AI oil contracts is much less so: According to the internal documents Hao viewed, Microsoft estimates the fossil fuel deals to be worth up to $75 billion a year. When Hao pressed a Microsoft executive on the apparent contradiction, he could only seem to repeat “It’s complicated” ad nauseam.

Leave a Comment