[Air-L] Exploring the materialities of AI: Geographies, infrastructures, numbers

[Loup Cellard]

Hi all,

We are happy to invite you to a one-day conference in Paris organised by
the Center for Internet and Society. The schedule is below and the
abstracts are attached.


The consequences of artificial intelligence (AI) on the environment have
garnered attention in public discourse after several publications
estimating the water consumption, energy usage and resource depletion
caused by the training and operating of AI and large language models
(LLMs). Quantification plays an important role in making the materiality of
AI perceptible but they do not exhaust the representations of AI’s
consequences on the planet. In this conference, we explore the
materialities of artificial AI from a wider variety of epistemic
perspectives that deepen the comprehension of the multiple facets of AI’s
material presence in the world and its consequences.


When: Friday, January 31, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm

*Where:* CNRS, site Pouchet, 59-61 rue Pouchet, 75017 Paris, FRANCE
<https://maps.app.goo.gl/QC6PN5YN25seF6FYA>
*Organisation team:* Loup Cellard (Datactivist, médialab Sciences-Po, ADM+S
Centre), Valentin Goujon (médialab, Sciences Po), Hugo Estecahandy (IFG
Lab, université Paris 8), Théophile Lenoir (University of Milan, médialab,
Sciences Po), Adrien Tournier (HT2S, Cnam).


A conference organised by the GDR 2091 Internet IA and Society (CNRS,
Paris, FR).

///

Schedule


09:30 am: Welcome coffee


10 am - 12:50 pm: A critical perspective on the quantification of AI’s
environmental footprint.



10 am - 10:30 am: Loup Cellard (Datactivist, medialab Sciences-Po, ADM+S
Centre) “Beyond AI as an environmental pharmakon: Principles for reopening
the problem-space of machine learning’s carbon footprint,” currently in
review in Environment & Planning E (with Christine Parker and Fiona Haines
- University of Melbourne)

10:30 am - 10:50 am: Q&A


10:50 am - 11:20 am: Anne-Laure Ligozat (ENSIIE) & Aurélie Bugeau (Bordeaux
University), “Can AI’s environmental damage be controlled?”


11:20 am - 11:40 am: Q&A


11:40 am - 12 pm : Break


12 pm - 12:30 pm: Théophile Lenoir (University of Milan), “Evaluating the
environmental consequences of AI: Tensions around quantification”,
currently in review in Digital Society (with Christine Parker - Melbourne
Law School)


12:30 pm - 12:50 pm: Q&A


12:50 pm - 2 pm: Lunch


2 pm - 4:50 pm : Beyond numbers - accounting for the materialities of AI
through its geography and infrastructure


2 pm - 2:30 pm: Ana Valdivia (Oxford) “The supply chain capitalism of AI: a
call to (re)think algorithmic harms and resistance through environmental
lens”

2:30 pm - 2:50 pm: Q&A


2:50 pm - 3:20 pm: Valentin Goujon (médialab, Sciences-Po Paris), “Big
Compute as Big Science: (super)computing infrastructures and the “greening”
of French AI research”.


3:20 pm - 3:40 pm: Q&A


3:40 am - 4 pm : Break


4 pm - 4:30 pm: Ludovico Rella (Durham, UK), “Between Dark and Green
Silicon. Geographies of Cloud and Edge AI”


4:30 pm - 4:50 pm: Q&A


4:50 pm - 5 pm: Concluding remarks



-- 

*Loup Cellard*
<http://www.loupcellard.com>Researcher — Datactivist
<https://datactivist.coop/en/> (Paris/Marseille)
Affiliate at Sciences-Po Médialab <https://medialab.sciencespo.fr/> (Paris)
+ ADM+S Centre <https://www.admscentre.org.au/> (Melbourne)
Editor at Tèque <https://revue-teque.fr/>, a tech criticism journal by Audimat
Editions <https://audimat-editions.fr/> (Paris)

Email : loupcellard at gmail.com
Mobile FR : +33 7 87 00 84 22
Website : loupcellard.com <http://www.loupcellard.com/>
Twitter : @CellardLoup
<https://twitter.com/CellardLoup>Newsletter : Data Dandysme
<https://tinyletter.com/loupcellard>