Diaries
As an Alliance, we prioritize transparency and openness. We want everyone to be able to know our inner workings, and walk with us during the journey. This is where we tell you about how our research projects and initiatives are going, including mishaps, unforeseen events, errors, and all—just like a diary. If you think you could add value to our work or if you just want to join a community of people interested in AI and Planetary Justice, do reach out!
Introducing Our New Project: Below the Algorithm
Behind every battery, every circuit, and every device are minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements. This is the first Research Diary for our newly launched project, Below the Algorithm. From the AIPJ Team, Ambika and Beatrice explore the importance of minerals for AI and what we’re doing to make this dependence more visible and actionable.
Introducing Our New Project: Rooted Clouds
The first Research Diary for our Rooted Clouds project, a mapping project that traces where data centers are located and what their presence means for local ecosystems and communities. From the AIPJ Team, Nicolás and Lakshmee explore why we need to root the digital cloud in its material realities and what we plan to do about it.
Developing an Impact Framework of Planetary Justice Impacts of AI
Behind every AI system lies a complex chain–from mining and manufacturing to model training, deployment, and disposal–that affects our environment and communities. This framework is our effort to map out those hidden impacts and ask the right questions about what we know—and what we still don’t know.
Our approach is aspirational. It outlines our ideal vision of understanding an AI system’s true costs by starting with clear, local impacts–such as the effects of mining or assembly on nearby communities. Although tracing every detail in a multi-tiered supply chain is challenging (even giants like Intel have struggled), we believe that beginning with local effects will gradually build a more complete picture.