Large language models offer an opportunity to advance climate and sustainability research. We believe that a focus on regulation and validation of generative artificial intelligence models would provide more benefits to society than a halt in development.
In our recent work published in Nature Climate Research, we expose that the research and practice AI community has animated a lively debate around the moratorium request that was published in March 2023 to pause the training of very large AI systems4. Although we share some of the concerns that the signatories rightfully flag, we feel that the letter’s proposed solution to pause progress can be misunderstood to imply a broader halt on AI development by the policy community. Furthermore, the letter does not open a holistic debate about implications of this temporary halt for other scientific communities. We believe that the risk is that some countries, not aware of the full picture of this debate, may halt developments in AI altogether. As a result, research on key areas could be slowed down by a moratorium that limits a tool that has become essential to advance knowledge on complex problems with hidden interactions, such as climate change.
