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SUMMARY:Elemental Ethics for AI: Mobilising Water in Data Centres and Lith
 ium Activism in Chile - Dr Sebastian Lehuede
DTSTART:20231025T160000Z
DTEND:20231025T173000Z
UID:TALK206800@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Anusha Arumugam
DESCRIPTION:We are delighted to invite you to Dr Sebastián Lehuedé’s t
 alk on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and environmental activism. Sebastián
  was CGHR’s Postdoctoral Scholar from 2021 to 2023\, before he succeeded
  in being appointed to a Lectureship in Ethics\, AI and Society in the Dep
 artment of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. This talk stems 
 from theoretical explorations and empirical fieldwork he conducted during 
 his time at CGHR. This hybrid session will be moderated by CGHR Co-Directo
 r Dr Sharath Srinivasan.\n\nABSTRACT\n\nResearch and activism have increas
 ingly denounced the problematic environmental record of the infrastructure
  and value chain underpinning Artificial Intelligence (AI). Water-intensiv
 e data centres\, mineral extraction and e-waste dumping are incontrovertib
 ly part of AI’s footprint. In this talk\, Sebastián turns to areas affe
 cted by AI-fuelled environmental harm and identifies an emerging form of a
 ctivism\, which he terms ‘elemental ethics’. Elemental ethics interrog
 ates AI’s problematic relationship with the elements that make up the wo
 rld (such as water)\, critiques the undermining of local and ancestral app
 roaches to nature and unearths the vital and quotidian harms engendered by
  so-called ‘intelligent’ systems.\n\nWhile this ethics is emerging fro
 m grassroots and Indigenous groups\, it also connects with discussions wit
 hin environmental philosophy on the capacity of elemental thought to promp
 t practical action. In empirical terms\, this talk looks at two groups in 
 Chile centring water in their struggle against a Google data centre projec
 t in Santiago and lithium extraction (used for rechargeable batteries) in 
 Lickan Antay Indigenous territory\, Atacama Desert. As Sebastián shows\, 
 elemental ethics expands ‘counting carbon’ approaches to sustainable A
 I and questions whose lived experience counts in debates about extinction 
 scenarios brought about by AI.\n\nYou are welcomed to join us for drinks p
 ost-event at the Atrium of the Alison Richard Building.
LOCATION:S1
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