An interview with Tiphaine Viard, a researcher at i3-NOS
Interviewed by Isabelle Mauriac, Télécom-Paris
Interviewed by Isabelle Mauriac, Télécom-Paris
At a time when artificial intelligence is both touted as a key driver of the ecological transition and criticized for its growing energy footprint, a question arises: what do AI researchers think of this tension? Can they, too, “change course” in the face of the climate crisis?
- Tiphaine Viard documented researchers’ views on the environmental impact of AI in a study conducted with Simon Delarue and Jean-Samuel Beuscart, a professor of sociology at Sciences Po.
- Their study is based on a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, it draws on a vast corpus of nearly 10,000 scientific articles devoted to the links between AI and the environment. On the other hand, it includes some fifteen in-depth interviews with researchers who, to varying degrees, have shifted the focus of their work in response to environmental concerns.
- The study highlights that AI is not a neutral entity. It is intertwined with political, social, and environmental issues. Faced with this, researchers oscillate between technical optimization, strategic repositioning, and radical questioning. This diversity of responses reflects a field in flux, where academic freedom—far from being a given—itself becomes a subject of negotiation in the era of the climate emergency.
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