Publications
Most Recent
Paper: „The Problem of Sustainable AI“
Paul Schütze
This paper critically questions the conception of sustainable AI. Drawing on philosophy of technology and critical materialist thinking, it aims to uncover the dominant interests and hegemonic narratives driving sustainable AI developments.
I show how the promises of sustainable AI largely rely on narratives of efficiency and progress, and work by invoking myths and images of a super-intelligence saving humanity. Sustainable AI is the technical solution to the climate crisis from a techno-solutionist vantage point simply reproducing the status quo. The enthusiasm for sustainable AI primarily serves hegemonic interests, rather than genuinely aiming for resource-friendly and ethical solutions. The paper concludes with the observation that if we want true climate action, sustainable AI is not the way to go.
I show how the promises of sustainable AI largely rely on narratives of efficiency and progress, and work by invoking myths and images of a super-intelligence saving humanity. Sustainable AI is the technical solution to the climate crisis from a techno-solutionist vantage point simply reproducing the status quo. The enthusiasm for sustainable AI primarily serves hegemonic interests, rather than genuinely aiming for resource-friendly and ethical solutions. The paper concludes with the observation that if we want true climate action, sustainable AI is not the way to go.
April 2024 | Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society
Articles
The Problem of Sustainable AI
Paul Schütze
This paper critically questions the conception of sustainable AI. Drawing on philosophy of technology and critical materialist thinking, it aims to uncover the dominant interests and hegemonic narratives driving sustainable AI developments.
I show how the promises of sustainable AI largely rely on narratives of efficiency and progress, and work by invoking myths and images of a super-intelligence saving humanity. Sustainable AI is the technical solution to the climate crisis from a techno-solutionist vantage point simply reproducing the status quo. The enthusiasm for sustainable AI primarily serves hegemonic interests, rather than genuinely aiming for resource-friendly and ethical solutions. The paper concludes with the observation that if we want true climate action, sustainable AI is not the way to go.
I show how the promises of sustainable AI largely rely on narratives of efficiency and progress, and work by invoking myths and images of a super-intelligence saving humanity. Sustainable AI is the technical solution to the climate crisis from a techno-solutionist vantage point simply reproducing the status quo. The enthusiasm for sustainable AI primarily serves hegemonic interests, rather than genuinely aiming for resource-friendly and ethical solutions. The paper concludes with the observation that if we want true climate action, sustainable AI is not the way to go.
April 2024 | Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society
The impacts of AI futurism: an unfiltered look at AI’s true effects on the climate crisis
Paul Schütze
This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of AI technologies on the climate crisis beyond their mere resource consumption. To critically examine this impact, I introduce the concept of AI futurism. With this term I capture the ideology behind AI, and argue that this ideology is inherently connected to the climate crisis. This is because AI futurism construes a socio-material environment overly fixated on AI and technological progress, to the extent that it loses sight of the existential threats ahead. In that way, the perceived significance of the planetary reality is softened, and the unsustainable paths charted by the AI industry remain opaque.
March 2023 | Ethics and Information Technology
Philosophy and the Climate Crisis: An Agenda for Change
Paul Schütze & Philipp Haueis
We are right in the middle of the climate crisis, and if we do not take adequate action by the end of the decade the outlook is devastating. In the face of this all-pervasive crisis, we, as philosophers, need to confront the fact that direct and rapid action against a climate collapse appears to be the only way forward. In this article, we therefore pose demands on how academic philosophy should change in response to this reality.
October 2023 | Public Philosophy Journal
Uncovering today’s rationalistic attunement
Paul Schütze & Imke von Maur
In this paper, we explore a rationalistic orientation in Western society. We suggest that this orientation is one of the predominant ways in which Western society tends to frame, understand and deal with a majority of problems and questions – namely in terms of mathematical analysis, calculation and quantification, relying on logic, numbers, and statistics. Our main goal in this paper is to uncover the affective structure of this rationalistic orientation.
From Affective Arrangements to Affective Milieus
Paul Schütze
In this paper, I develop the concept of affective milieus, which brings to light the everyday, ubiquitous affective engagements of individuals with their socio-material surroundings. Affective milieus specifically call attention to how commonplace affect relations create territories in the social universe which form and mold individuals all the time. In that way, this paper apprehends and advances recent developments in the research on situated affectivity.
2021 | Frontiers in Psychology
The Moral Adequacy of Emotions
Paul Schütze
In this paper, I provide an approach for the moral adequacy of emotional responses in a social context. I aim to show that in today’s social and political culture the link between emotions and moral norms cannot be neglected.
Book Chapters
Affect as Disruption: Affective Experimentation, Automobility, and the Ecological Crisis
Paul Schütze, Kilian Jörg, Imke von Maur & Jan Slaby
In this text we construe affect as a conservative force, as glue that holds social life in place. With this starting point, we direct our attention towards the unfolding of the ecological crises. Using the case of ‘automobile supremacy’, we discuss a paradigmatic affective formation that keeps Western societies deadlocked in a loop of business as usual, preventing them from adequately addressing the climate catastrophe.
Pre-Prints
Philosophy and the Climate Crisis: An Agenda for Change
Paul Schütze & Philipp Haueis
We are right in the middle of the climate crisis, and if we do not take adequate action the outlook is devastating. In the face of this all-pervasive crisis, we, as philosophers, need to confront the fact that direct and rapid action is the only way forward. In this article, we therefore pose demands on how academic philosophy should change in response to this reality.
2022 | SSRN Electronic Journal
Other
Podcast: „KI und Klimakrise – Über Big Tech und Datenextraktivismus“
Paul Schütze
In diesem Podcast spreche ich über meine aktuelle Arbeit, in der ich unter anderem das Konzept einer nachhaltigen KI radikal in Frage stelle und für einen grundlegenden Perspektivwechsel der akademischen Philosophie im Angesicht der Klimakrise plädiere. In der Episode geht es neben diesen Aspekten u.a. darum, was KI, Big Data und Big Tech eigentlich sind, in welchem Verhältnis der Datenextraktivismus zum fossilen Extraktivismus steht, und wie KI unsere individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse zur Klimakrise beeinflusst.
November 2023 | Narabo – Philosophie im 21. Jahrhundert
Blogpost: „What is ethical AI? A multidisciplinary thought exchange“
Leah Junck, Paul Schütze, Rüya Tuna Toparlak
1) Envisioning an ‘ethical AI’ is not a straightforward matter and 2) envisioning it must alwaysbe an interdisciplinary effort. With these thoughts consistently resurfacing in our discussions, we decided to bring together our individual perspectives and research backgrounds, namely anthropology, ethics and philosophy, and law, within this commentary. What follows is a glimpse into the main insights and exchanges of our collective thinking.
20. June 2023 | All Tech is Human
Mining the Future? The Artificial Intelligence of Climate Breakdown
Paul Schütze
The showdown between carbon capitalists and post-carbon capitalists is also a struggle over the collective perception of the climate crisis, aimed at brushing us off with quick answers and preventing us from questioning capitalism, as media researcher Paul Schütze argues in his contribution to the BG text series “After Extractivism” by focusing on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
> German version
> German version
2022 | Berliner Gazette
Philosophie und die Klimakrise: Ein Aufruf zum Wandel
Paul Schütze & Philipp Haueis
Die Klimakrise ist in vollem Gange. Schon jetzt sind die Aussichten verheerend. Inmitten dieser Krise stellen wir uns die Frage, was die Philosophie angesichts solcher Herausforderungen beitragen kann.