150 Days of Artificial Intelligence

Writing One New Article About AI Every Day for 500 Days

13 min readNov 1, 2019

There is a lot to write about, ominous clouds so to speak. Therefore filling 150 days with writings about artificial intelligence has in no way been difficult in terms of news or research. Rather the difficult part has been to write about this topic considering the mind-boggling complex environment, especially within my two overlapping interests: artificial intelligence and sustainability. In some sense my head hurts thinking about the immense progress that humanity has considering changes in technology. Simultaneously that very same headache may be due to the often ignored climate crisis within the field of artificial intelligence.

I will start by giving you a quick breakdown of my days of exploring the field of artificial intelligence.

A list of the 150 articles can be found towards the bottom section of this article.

First 50 Days

Writing generally about artificial intelligence exploring basic concepts.

Next 50–100 Days

Writing with a focus on AI Safety connecting security concerns with climate.

After 100–150 Days

AI connected to programming, international relations, quantum and 5G.

Overarching Thoughts

What is it that we want to accomplish with artificial intelligence? In the middle of a climate crisis the resource use and misuse of technology is apparent. Data has become the new oil and rapid tech expansion part of the equation, yet in a way not accounted for in most evaluations of the sustainability of different companies. It is increasingly an international security issue and regulation in the use of algorithms.

As a disclaimed I would say I am quite cheerful in regards to what we can do with technology and I have a great belief in the capability or capacity building for humanity. Yet there are some thoughts I believe we should ponder relating to artificial intelligence:

Ignoring the climate crisis. The climate crisis is being adversely affected by the developments in technology with ignorant use of artificial intelligence without regard of resources or energy being a great risk. Although there are positive use-cases there are overshadowed by the lack of attention to sustainability by most technology companies. As Great Thunberg says: “To do your best, is no longer good enough.”
Increasing inequalities. AI can deepen inequalities and exacerbate geopolitical tensions. Deterrence theory, stopping the adverse consequences of weaponised use, of both nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence is a productive field for humanity considering the terror that could be wrought by these two technologies combined destruction.
Emerging technology means power. Programming is a political activity and programming languages are governed by people. Emerging technologies such as quantum computing and 5G combined with artificial intelligence is seen as a great opportunity by states together with private actors. These developments are in many contexts seen as a ‘race’ to dominance or the best governance.

A Discussion of More Responsible AI

From my early writings I have questioned the funding of ethics in technology, yet I can see this being a pervasive issue. Regardless of the seeming situation, that ethics in technology is largely funded by the largest technology companies, it is positive to see these topics being discussed. In a most recent turn of events the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence held a conference on Ethics, Policy, and Governance.

If you are passionate about these topics I would recommend you watch the video. You will find hours packed with information and thoughtful discussions on the consequences or possibilities of applications within artificial intelligence as well as research needed to explore apparent fault lines.

What struck me most was the coded gaze by Joy Buolamwini. It was an emotional appeal to the failure of algorithmic mismatching with real world consequences for people. However I enjoyed the talks and discussions with Marietje Schaake, Dutch member of the European Parliament (2009–19) and Eric Schmidt (previous CEO of Google), Technical Advisor, Alphabet Inc.

One last picture I would like to share is the slide by Jessica Cussins Newman showing a collection of different countries on priorities within different AI Security Domains. Only EU fulfils all of these in their principles:

Thank you

That being said I appreciate so incredibly much that every step of the way I have had readers who care and develop my thoughts. Readers who inspire me and are far better writers than I am. Being stopped in a corridor by someone who has read an article and has critical comments is valuable. Looking at the ‘message requests’ on my different social media channels and seeing people wanting to discuss makes me happy. It engages me too giving me energy to continue the discussion.

As I keep repeating I am so glad for the patience of my wife in my endeavour to write a new article every day. We are today celebrating our three year anniversary.

A picture from the wedding of my wedding

I wish she stays patient because I still have 349 days left of my #500daysofAI project. However I am increasingly finding a way to navigate creating these articles during the course of the week while respecting the love of my life.

A great degree of thanks to my family who actually reads quite a few of these articles and is endlessly supportive.

Thank you to community at Young Sustainable Impact who allow me to discuss these topics of sustainability in a broader business context.

In addition to this I would like to thank KPMG International Development Advisory Services, my current workplace, for allowing me to approach these questions from a pragmatic practical angle. All views are my own of course, and do not express the perspectives of KPMG.

Increasingly appreciation goes to the staff at the University of Oslo for their diverse intellectual support. Since I drift between the Social Science faculty, Humanities and Computer Science (Informatics) faculty I get to speak to a variety of kind intellectuals willing to teach me more.

Thank you for being concerned with this topic and I hope you grab hold of me physically or online so we can discuss it in depth and at length to take action for increased sustainability in the field of artificial intelligence.