Jensen Huang talks about AI and climate change like a supervillain
Jensen Huang talks about AI and climate change like a supervillain
黄仁勋谈论人工智能与气候变化的方式宛如超级反派
As Jensen Huang puts it, AI can help fight climate change — but only if it inflicts “an enormous amount of pain and suffering” first. 正如黄仁勋所言，人工智能可以帮助应对气候变化——但前提是它必须先造成“巨大的痛苦与折磨”。
The Nvidia CEO discussed the future of energy and AI’s impact on our planet in the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show. But his comments boil down to the same accelerationist spin we’ve seen from a variety of tech leaders as well as President Donald Trump. They promise that AI will be such a gift to humanity that it’s worth the damage caused by data centers currently running on dirty energy. 这位英伟达首席执行官在最新一期的《埃兹拉·克莱恩秀》（The Ezra Klein Show）中探讨了能源的未来以及人工智能对地球的影响。然而，他的言论归根结底与我们从多位科技领袖以及唐纳德·特朗普总统那里听到的“加速主义”论调如出一辙。他们承诺，人工智能将成为人类的一份厚礼，以至于为了它，即便牺牲目前依赖肮脏能源运行的数据中心所造成的破坏也是值得的。
Huang’s extreme level of privilege is glaring in the interview. He’s right that there will be pain. People are already suffering from fires and floods exacerbated by climate change. People are already dying earlier because of air pollution from fossil fuels. But Huang, with a net worth of around $192.6 billion, will not pay the price of the pollution his company creates through energy-hungry chip factories and data centers. 在这次采访中，黄仁勋极高的特权地位显露无疑。他说会有痛苦，这一点没错。人们已经在遭受气候变化加剧带来的火灾和洪水的折磨。人们也因为化石燃料造成的空气污染而过早死亡。但身价约 1926 亿美元的黄仁勋，却不必为他的公司通过耗能巨大的芯片工厂和数据中心所产生的污染买单。
Huang tells Klein, after complaining that the US hasn’t built out enough fossil fuel plants, that: 在抱怨美国没有建设足够的化石燃料发电厂后，黄仁勋对克莱恩说道：
“It’s kind of like, in order to save you, they’ve got to hurt you first — that’s the nature of surgery. They’ve got to cut you open to save you. They’ve got to inflict an enormous amount of pain and suffering on you so that they can save you. And so I think AI’s kind of like that.” “这就像是，为了拯救你，他们必须先伤害你——这就是手术的本质。他们必须切开你的身体才能救你。他们必须让你承受巨大的痛苦和折磨，这样才能拯救你。所以我认为人工智能也差不多是这样。”
That’s the bit that gives Thanos energy. Resources are too limited and so after disappearing half of humanity, the Marvel supervillain believes, things will be much rosier. (“I will shred this universe down to its last atom, and then create a new one, teeming with life that knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given,” he tells the Avengers.) 这段话充满了灭霸（Thanos）的既视感。这位漫威超级反派认为，资源过于有限，因此在让半数人类消失后，世界会变得更加美好。（“我要将这个宇宙撕碎到最后一个原子，然后创造一个新的宇宙，那里充满了生命，它们不知道自己失去了什么，只知道自己得到了什么，”他对复仇者联盟说道。）
Huang goes on to say: “Over the next several years we have to unfortunately use fossil fuels, because we just don’t have enough sustainable energy to make a difference. And then after that, hopefully, we can transition to that.” 黄仁勋接着说道：“在接下来的几年里，我们不幸地必须使用化石燃料，因为我们目前没有足够的清洁能源来产生影响。在那之后，希望我们能够完成转型。”
For context, nearly every country on Earth agreed to limit climate change when they adopted the Paris agreement in 2015. The accord sets a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and reaching net zero around 2050. That can only happen with swift transition to carbon-free energy like renewables and nuclear. Here’s just a short list of terrible things getting worse when we stall that progress to pursue advances in AI: 背景资料显示，地球上几乎所有国家在 2015 年通过《巴黎协定》时都同意限制气候变化。该协定设定了到 2030 年将温室气体排放量减半，并在 2050 年左右实现净零排放的目标。这只有通过迅速向可再生能源和核能等无碳能源转型才能实现。以下是我们为了追求人工智能进步而拖延这一进程时，正在恶化的可怕后果清单：
Earth is expected to lose 99 percent of its coral reefs. Those reefs support coastal economies, and also serve as a buffer protecting communities from tropical storms, flooding, and coastal erosion. 地球预计将失去 99% 的珊瑚礁。这些珊瑚礁不仅支撑着沿海经济，还作为缓冲带保护社区免受热带风暴、洪水和海岸侵蚀的影响。
One in 10 people around the world, 770 million people, already face “acute risk” from sea level rise. Since 2001, peak daily wildfire growth rates have more than doubled in the western US. Wildfires are faster, more frequent, and more intense. 全球十分之一的人口，即 7.7 亿人，已经面临海平面上升带来的“严重风险”。自 2001 年以来，美国西部每日野火的峰值增长率翻了一番多。野火变得更快、更频繁、更猛烈。
These effects are showing up in Huang’s backyard, even if he’s insulated from them. He mentions in the interview that he doesn’t know what his own address is. However, he reportedly bought a $7.5 million home on Maui in 2004 — before wildfires devastated the island in 2023. That year, an Nvidia spokesperson confirmed with The Verge that the Huangs “have owned the same home in Maui for many years.” 这些影响正在黄仁勋的“后院”显现，尽管他本人与这些灾难隔绝。他在采访中提到自己不知道自己的住址。然而，据报道，他于 2004 年在毛伊岛购买了一套价值 750 万美元的住宅——那是在 2023 年野火摧毁该岛之前。那一年，英伟达发言人向《The Verge》证实，黄氏夫妇“多年来一直拥有毛伊岛上的同一处房产”。
Huang’s property reportedly escaped damage, and the Nvidia spokesperson told me that the Huangs “donated significantly to local relief efforts.” But despite the philanthropy from tech billionaires with residences on Maui, the inferno also inflamed tensions over luxury properties’ hold on Maui’s water supply. 据报道，黄仁勋的房产未受损，英伟达发言人告诉我，黄氏夫妇“为当地的救援工作捐赠了大量资金”。但尽管在毛伊岛拥有住宅的科技亿万富翁们进行了慈善捐赠，这场大火还是加剧了人们对豪华地产占用毛伊岛水资源的紧张情绪。
“Billionaires coming to Maui, buying up large swaths of land as their, I don’t know, seventh vacation home, it’s painful for our community,” Maui County Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez told me at the time. “It underscores the stark disparity between Indigenous people who want to mālama ‘āina, care for our land, and those who see Hawaii as a vacation destination.” “亿万富翁来到毛伊岛，买下大片土地作为他们的——我不知道，第七个度假屋，这对我们的社区来说是痛苦的，”毛伊县议员基亚尼·罗林斯-费尔南德斯（Keani Rawlins-Fernandez）当时告诉我。“这凸显了那些想要‘mālama ‘āina’（关爱土地）的原住民与那些将夏威夷视为度假胜地的人之间巨大的鸿沟。”
While greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels makes wildfires more dangerous by exacerbating hot, dry conditions, climate change isn’t entirely to blame for the flames that razed much of Lahaina on Maui. I reported at the time that previous generations of wealthy land grabbers primed the islands to burn. The US annexed the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1898, egged on by American plantation owners who wanted to evade import taxes. They cleared native vegetation for their businesses, allowing invasive grasses to take hold and make the landscape much more flammable than it used to be. 虽然化石燃料产生的温室气体污染通过加剧炎热干燥的环境使野火变得更加危险，但气候变化并非导致拉海纳大部分地区被夷为平地的唯一原因。我当时报道过，前几代富有的土地掠夺者为岛屿的燃烧埋下了隐患。1898 年，在美国种植园主为了逃避进口税的怂恿下，美国吞并了夏威夷王国。他们为了商业利益清除了原生植被，使得入侵性草类得以扎根，让地貌变得比过去更易燃。
So when I hear Huang make the case now that there will need to be sacrifices in the name of AI progress, it reminds me that we’ve seen this playbook before. An industry that wants to grow at any cost. And nearby communities and their descendants are just supposed to live with the aftermath. 因此，当我听到黄仁勋现在提出为了人工智能的进步必须做出牺牲时，这提醒我，我们以前见过这种剧本。一个不惜一切代价想要增长的行业，而附近的社区及其后代却只能被迫承受后果。
Huang mentions growing community opposition to data centers in the interview with Klein, and scolds other companies for not spreading the good news with residents about how efficient data centers purportedly are before they start construction. “If they don’t want data centers to be built in their town or whatever it is, then so be it. But if you’re going to build in their town, be sure to go there and let them know what’s coming,” he says. 黄仁勋在与克莱恩的采访中提到了社区对数据中心日益增长的反对声音，并指责其他公司在开工前没有向居民宣传数据中心所谓的“高效性”。他说：“如果他们不想在自己的城镇里建数据中心，那就随他们去。但如果你打算在他们的城镇里建设，一定要去那里告诉他们即将发生什么。”