AI’s Real Promise Isn’t in Fun iPhone Features

We’re living in a world of AI-powered news. No, I don’t mean large-language models are writing news reports—just the opposite. In tech business news, at least, AI is the thread that runs through most everything nowadays. Apple’s AI presentation on Monday drove this week’s news cycle, while the other big story of the week, Tesla’s shareholder vote over Elon Musk’s pay, also had AI as a subtext—specifically his involvement in the company’s AI efforts. Despite the ubiquity of AI in news coverage, one point doesn’t get enough scrutiny: Are the advances society is going to get from the new technology worth the cost?

By cost, I particularly mean the impact on the power supply. Data center demands for power threaten to suck the energy world dry, setting back efforts to shift away from carbon-emitting power sources. And to what end? Judging from how some tech companies are marketing their AI-powered services, it’s about helping consumers design a menu for a dinner party, plan a vacation or find a photo on their phone. (The idea, of course, is to get consumers to spend money on new devices or AI subscriptions.) Or it’s about helping businesses improve employee productivity, including by cutting jobs (great!). Despite the attention these uses have drawn, the real promise of AI surely is its potential to help solve existential challenges like deadly disease or dangerous drivers.