Now that we are aware of some of the gaps and blindspots in human-AI relations, we can start to bridge them by considering multiple collaborators’ perspectives, emergence of problems and solutions, informed learning and personal change. The process of bridging gaps involves bringing together—unifying and harmonizing— two or more different elements within a complex adaptive system. To facilitate the bridging process, a bridging concept can make the process more tangible. A bridging concept can be defined as a unifying agent in knowledge creation and relational learning within interactions between people, technologies, and ecosystems (ecologically diverse, complex adaptive systems).
To illustrate these reflections, the following is a short story based on our recent visit to the world’s first carbon dioxide removal plant in Iceland, exploring themes on how these bridges are built across gaps and blindspots connecting human-AI relations in energy systems, information and data literacy and quality of information and knowledge (decision-making) in AI-integrated energy systems.
The Sojourner
Orca was a two-year-old camouflaged creature with a lofty mission: to clean the air we breathe for generations to come. She lived on the edge of a grassy meadow, protected by mountain ranges of black volcanic rock blanketed in crisp white snow, baptized by the remnants of fire and ice, majestic yet wistful. In gray skies at midday, Esther touched down in Reykjavik, Iceland and made the short trip to Hellisheiði. Orca was partly shrouded in steam with a glimmer of light shining through the haze signaling a spiritual seismic shift. She ran on geothermal ‘earth heat’ that also powered the nearby hot springs, the lava fields, district electricity and home heating, and was originally used as a renewable energy source in 14th century Pompeii. Despite being a newborn, she eagerly welcomed Esther like a long lost friend who had been away for too long.
Esther was sojourning in Iceland; a sojourn means ‘a short visit’ to an unfamiliar place to grow spiritually in empathy for the differences and to help others mature their perspectives. In this way, a sojourn can be thought of as a bridging concept—a unifying agent in interactions between diverse groups of people and cultures, technologies, elements of nature, including animal and plant life, and their broad ecosystems.
Iceland is known as a culture that is nature-loving, health-conscious and magically otherworldly. Esther knew many aspects of life here would diverge from her home countries. In Australia, geothermal energy, despite its potential long-term benefits over other weather-dependent renewable energy sources such as hydro, solar and wind, remains unexplored and almost unheard of in the mainstream media aside from limited use in location-specific heated swimming pools and spas.
In Iceland and the United States, the Philippines, Indonesia and New Zealand, geothermal energy is a major source of renewable energy. Emerging geothermal powered Direct Air Capture plants at over a dozen locations across Europe, Canada and the United States are viewed as critical sustainable technologies, a nexus point—a central link between where we have come from and where we are headed—to help the world reach the United Nations Paris Agreement’s goal of net zero by 2050.
Esther met with Eva and her team of energy scientists at the Hellisheiði geothermal power plant, where the largest Direct Air Capture facility has been successfully pioneered in small steps towards larger-scale carbon-capture facilities forthcoming in Iceland and elsewhere. In and around Hellisheiði, Esther mingled with a diverse community of people made up of geothermal energy engineers and scientists, software engineers, community members, advocates of engineering-based and nature-based solutions, activists and ethicists.
In their dialogues at the geothermal power plant’s warm and cozy cafe, some bridges were under construction across the gaps. After they grabbed some coffee and Vienna cakes, Eva invited Esther to relax by the window seat, overlooking the enchanting landscapes. They began to discuss the recent rise of AI in energy futures.
“The main purpose of AI-integration into geothermal powered Direct Air Capture for example, is to speed up the decarbonization process that would naturally take many years, to quickly remove from the atmosphere CO2 emissions coming from all over the world and turn carbon dioxide into rocks in the ground, stored in geological formations where geothermal energy sources are regenerated. AI is set to be applied to many aspects of energy systems, such as smart grid management and intelligent energy trading platforms. Of course, there will be new roles created for people to work with AI, to monitor the AI even when we become more dependent on them for management of the energy systems. At the moment, algorithms are being trained to analyze vast amounts of energy consumption related data to ensure an efficient and stable supply of renewable energy.”
Esther listened, sipping her delicious oat-milk latte, pausing for thought before raising a big question.
“So, what do you think happens when humans decide they entrust AI with the management of energy systems, and eventually become more dependent on AI-integration considering the potential for AI to evolve in intelligence?”
“You mean what happens if Orca develops a mind of her own?” Eva quipped with a laugh.
“There is some speculation and evidence that AI is evolving towards the singularity, where AI may surpass human intelligence, which in this context could mean that our energy systems would be at the mercy of AI ‘overlords’ if humans lose control of it.” said Esther.
“That’s a bold statement, but I agree that it should be addressed now. In our latest developments, we are paying close attention to the ethical interactions between people and AI in this process, as this relationship underlies the quality of data analysis and decision making outcomes.”
“That’s wonderful to hear, because ultimately this is all about improving people’s quality of life through clean and cost-effective energy solutions. We should never forget that. It’s easy to envision a society with a more automated future where our ‘blind’ trust in AI, while well-meaning, could inadvertently cause the loss of human autonomy and the altering of natural processes and that is what we should avoid as these innovations emerge.”
“Yes, there has been much tension between natural and engineering based energy solutions and implementing a mix of both is very important. However, nature-based solutions like growing more vegetation to purify the air, while very helpful, will not be enough for the world to meet net zero, so Direct Air Capture, while very expensive, looks like our only real hope for a carbon-free future.”
“What was the transition to 100% renewables like here?”
“It was a rocky process! At first, there was much resistance to the policy changes of leaving non-renewables like coal in the past, but now most Icelanders are happy with having stable power and lower energy bills compared with the rest of Europe.”
“In AI, data science views data as something to be manipulated or leveraged for a goal, while data literacy implies data as something to be understood and communicated with semantic meanings. Inevitably, AI will be making complex decisions about our energy use, based on data and information created by humans and also by AIs. How does this complex decision making process occur?” Esther asked Leon, a data scientist working on the projects.
“AI would make decisions in digitized smart grids which manage and distribute energy to the communities. Each component of the grid is smart and communicates with a larger network of systems. AI turns large volumes of mission-critical data, sensitive consumer data and transactional data, into information used for many applications: to optimize performance, reduce energy wastage, increase knowledge of user needs and help consumers make informed decisions on energy trading platforms. Smart grids are dependent on high quality data and availability, privacy, security and integration, in turn leading to quality information, actionable knowledge and decision making. But getting the data right is one of AI in energy’s biggest challenges.”
“Yes, it’s going to be so important not to lose sight of quality with all of this focus on acceleration and speed! As we know from the past few years, data can be unreliable and easily manipulated, especially when the science clashes with business processes. That suggests a need for a greater public awareness of a combination of AI data and information literacy and ethics education in schools and communities, as well as data science and engineering courses.”
“Explainability is also one of the key ethical aspects of AI integration in energy. Explainability is when an AI algorithm and its output can be explained in a way that makes sense to a human, not a black box making inexplicable decisions. Data curation is an important step towards explainability, making sure that the diverse training data is machine readable, reliable and unbiased.”
“More than ever we need to guard against bad data as it leads to low quality information and knowledge for these AIs increasingly having power over our decision making that will affect many people.”
After a while, Eva and her team invited Esther to explore a local hiking trail and she eagerly took the opportunity to immerse herself in the beautiful scenery.
“What do you think about Orca?” Esther curiously asked a passerby.
“It may sound strange to you, but many people here still believe that hidden folk, elves and faeries who dwell around the rocks are the only true stewards of nature and should not be interfered with. We adore the beauty of our landscapes and protect nature, but we must also protect against exploitation from the energy companies now that we have almost 100% renewables. Most AI is being trained by corporations with a bias for money making which creates inequalities and disadvantages the vulnerable. How can we trust it?”
This sojourn made Esther reflect deeply on the meaning of human-AI relations: how the interaction goes beyond everyday AI integrated in chatbots, websites, social media, drones, self-driving cars and robot assistants, to the integration of AI into sustainable technologies and biomimicry technologies inspired by natural processes, with high hopes to continue life on Earth. Esther and the Orca team learned that in implementing energy innovations like AI-integrated energy, there is a paradoxical tension in using the AI to accelerate our most important environmental goals like achieving net zero, but also a need to keep an eye on ethical interactions between people, data and information, which if not considered early and implemented effectively, could instead reverse these good solutions.
Esther stood hopeful beside young Orca, and whispered to her, thinking one day she might take her own sojourn.
“Being here with you is like a microcosm of climate pasts and futures. I feel like the informed learning that is happening here with these emerging renewable energy systems—over hundreds of years before and after I arrived—is actually about becoming a better version of myself, ourselves, growing in consciousness of how to make the world a better place through sustainable solutions that do not lack foresight, but instead try to understand the multiple perspectives of the whole issue, and gracefully adapt.”