Responsible AI Strategy for the Environment

The Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) has put climate action and biodiversity preservation at the top of their agenda. As a general-purpose technology, artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed responsibly to accelerate positive environmental action. Since 2020, the ‘Responsible AI Strategy for the Enforcement’ (RAISE) project, under the leadership of Responsible AI Expert Working Group, have been conducting important foundational work to understand both the opportunities and challenges of AI in relation to climate action 1 and biodiversity preservation 2 . Project RAISE has also taken steps to act on the recommendations of these foundational reports, including publication of AI readiness guidance booklets for net-zero 3 , collaboration with the OECD to assess environmental impacts of AI compute and applications 4 , and exploring the concept of a net-zero data space in collaboration with the UK 5 . With the explosive popularization of generative AI methods in 2023, Project RAISE has also undertaken work to address the G7’s Hiroshima AI process 6 , to facilitate discussions on generative AI, with the aim of leading to delivery of practical projects. To further these mandates, on August 4th, 2023, Project RAISE held a virtual workshop, bringing together experts at the intersection of AI and the environment to co-design future approaches to international collaboration and practical action. The workshop structure is detailed in Section 1.