Hello folks! Happy Friday! If you’re reading this before 1:45 pm ET, it’s not too late to join our monthly Checkmates Call. Today, Checkmates will get to meet our investigative reporter Rachel Gilmore, an award-winning journalist with extensive experience reporting on federal politics, disinformation, and extremism. We can’t wait to chat with you! If you’re already a Checkmate, your invite should already be in your inbox. If you’re not and would like to become one, we'd love to have you! Sign up for a monthly pledge of $5 or more to join our Checkmates community. The final invite and reminder email will go out at 1:45 pm ET today! How AI threatens the fight to stop climate change 🤖 Tech companies paint a rosy picture about how AI can combat climate change. But its threats to progress in the climate fight are real and immediate. The budding technology has the potential to make disinformation faster, cheaper, and more viral than ever. And in two years, AI data centers may consume as much energy annually as Japan, all while slurping up billions of liters of fresh water, often in areas already facing shortages. These are some of the dangers we highlight in a new report, The AI Threats to Climate Change, published alongside Kairos, Global Action Plan, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth as part of the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition. "We are already seeing how generative AI is being weaponized to spin up climate disinformation or copy legitimate news sites to siphon off advertising revenue," said Sarah Kay Wiley, director of policy at Check My Ads. What we’re reading and listening to 👂 Is the media prepared for an extinction-level event? That’s the question Clare Malone asks in a (harrowing if you’re a journalist) piece in The New Yorker. With ads scarce and traffic driven by social networks plummeting, the media needs to rethink everything. Spotting tech-driven disinformation isn’t getting easier. If you feel like you’re spending more and more time trying to parse if what you’re reading is real, you’re not alone. Boston University professor (and Check My Ads board member!) Dr. Joan Donovan appeared on the Marketplace Tech podcast and talked about the soup of fake content we’re all finding ourselves in. Thank you all for being with us this week! Hugs, |
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