Technology for a Sustainable Future: Harmonizing Human Values with Planetary Interests

Why ProSocial AI is ProPlanetary AI: A Promise for Planetary Harmony

In the midst of unprecedented technological advancements, we stand at a critical threshold where artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to either perpetuate or transform humanity’s relationship with nature and our planet. The choice lies in our hands.

The Lancet commentary emphasizes that policies to mitigate Earth system destabilization often have immediate and long-term health benefits, making them more compelling and cost-effective. AI is not neutral; it amplifies human values, priorities, and ways of thinking. If we continue to view nature as a resource to be optimized and controlled, we’ll create systems that perpetuate our current trajectory toward planetary collapse.

However, by grounding AI development in Indigenous wisdom and ecological principles, we can reorient the very fabric of how we think about technology’s role in sustaining life on Earth. This necessitates a fundamental shift in how we develop, deploy, and interact with AI.

Prosocial AI is not just about making AI more helpful or ethical; it’s about creating technology that is simultaneously pro-people, pro-planet, and pro-potential. Pro-people means strengthening communities rather than displacing them, amplifying human wisdom rather than replacing it, and ensuring the benefits of technological advancement flow to those who need them most.

Pro-planet means AI systems designed within ecological limits, regenerating natural systems, and treating Earth’s boundaries as fundamental parameters for sustainable innovation. This requires a commitment to renewable energy sources, responsible resource extraction, and environmental justice.

Moreover, we cannot create prosocial AI without the voices and needs of those most affected by both environmental degradation and technological change. We must involve diverse communities in AI governance, ensuring equitable access to AI benefits and designing systems that strengthen local autonomy and traditional knowledge.

A new narrative is required – one that positions AI not as humanity’s replacement but as our partner in planetary healing. Technology serves life, not the other way around.

Source: www.forbes.com