SHADE Newsletter 8th February 2024

Welcome to the sixth edition of the SHADE newsletter! 

SHADE is a research hub with a mission to explore issues at the intersection of digital technologies/AI, health and the environment. It is guided by a fundamental question: How should the balance between AI/digital enabled health and planetary health be struck in different areas of the world, and what should be the guiding principles?

The SHADE newsletter comes out every two weeks, bringing you a selection of the latest news, upcoming events, academic publications and podcasts in the SHADE space.

In this newsletter, we highlight Critical Data Centre Studies. We look at the latest on AI funding and regulation in the US and UK, examine the challenges in deciding who should benefit from the climate loss and damage fund, look at which hospitals are at risk from climate change, learn about relational footprinting, explore ways to assess algorithms… and much more.  We hope you enjoy it!

Please tell us what you like, what you don’t like and what you think is missing at [email protected].   

Highlight on Critical Data Centre Studies

• As the latest tranche of UK government funding to support data centres for AI is rolled out, and global data centre electricity use is predicted to double by 2026, a new research field, Critical Data Centre Studies, emerges and alternative infrastructural futures are made possible that centre people and planet over profit and capital.

News

• As global warming exceeds 1.5C across an entire year, in the US Democrats proposed the AI Environmental Impacts Act 2024. This is endorsed by the Green Web Foundation and by Data & Society, who highlight how concerns around issues like bias in algorithms have hitherto crowded out environmental concerns around AI. The Act may fill gaps in AI regulation from other regulatory bodies.

• Meanwhile, the UK government’s response to consultation on its March 2023 AI regulation white paper comes wrapped into an announcement of £100 million to “support AI regulators and advance research and innovation on AI”. However, it’s clear that its priorities lie in promoting homegrown AI development, and only £10 million is to be spent on regulation which is being kept light, or, as the government puts it, “agile”.

• Nature exposes the complexity of deciding who should benefit from the climate loss and damage fund agreed at COP28. It shows how adopting a normative, data driven approach to this has multiple challenges.

• A recently published paper on Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) in clinical practice acknowledges that there are challenges, but makes no explicit mention of the environmental impacts highlighted in the January 25th SHADE newsletter. It suggests that the increasing use of WGS should be seen as part of a wider "investment in precision medicine".

• Two reports on Google’s first UK data centre: The first highlights its carbon free energy targets, off site heat recovery and air based cooling system and the second its tremendous significance for the UK’s ambitions for growth as a tech economy and AI leader. It is interesting to compare this with what happened in the Netherlands (see the last item in ‘what we’re listening to’ below).

What we’re listening to

• The latest podcast from One World, One Health which hears how the Trinity Challenge looks to support multidisciplinary research teams with ideas to combat AMR, and how the focus is on making use of community data - including data on animals and the environment - from the Global South.

• An episode on Sustainability in Medical Education from the Medical Educatalks series.

• From Code to Climate with Adrian Cockcroft from the UnLearn podcast

• From Latitude Media, how AI is part of the clean energy solution.

• Dutch satirical program Zondag mit Luback shows what has happened in the Netherlands around energy production and data centres. This was featured in a news item on the Politics of Data Centres from the Green Web Foundation.

What we’re reading

• The 2023 XDI Global Hospital Infrastructure Physical Climate Risk report from the Cross Dependency Initiative assesses physical climate risk for over 200,000 hospitals around the world.

• A comprehensive look at the environmental impacts of a digital health and well-being service in elderly living schemes from Raphael Tarpani and SHADE’s own Alejandro Gallego-Schmid.

• This paper examining where AI fits in in addressing Antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

• Building a Sustainable ICT Ecosystem, a report from the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), a Canadian think tank, puts forward strategies and best practices for ICT designers, developers and adopters to reduce environmental harm in a digital world.

• Relational footprinting as a alternative way round the impasse in quantifying the carbon footprint of ICT.

• This paper on e-waste provides useful context on the challenges and opportunities in the management of e-waste.

• “When people and ecologies meet technical systems there will always be unintended consequences” - a piece on how Data and Society’s AIM Lab is working out how to assess algorithmic systems from Tamara Kneese. It includes a call for potential partners to get in touch.

• SHARE-ENV is an open access database that enables a better understanding of the relationship between the environment and wellbeing.

• The UK government’s progress and plans for regulating medical devices, including software as a medical device (SaMD) and AI as a medical device (AIaMD), are summarised in this timeline.

• The Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory launched on February 5th.

• Check out these visualisations of the energy transition from Electricity Maps.

Events

• Standards for Official Statistics on Climate Health Interactions - a free online event to share details on the ongoing 4 year project. 2 to 3pm GMT February 12th.

• On Valentine’s Day, from the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, a free event on fossil fuels, energy and the climate - 1 to 2pm GMT February 14th.

• If you are in Oxford on Thursdays at 5pm this month, you can sign up for one of the Green Templeton lectures on Planetary Health. Speakers include Kate Raworth and Jojo Mehta.

Opportunities

• Applications for the 2024 European Sustainable Healthcare Awards are now open - deadline is March 15th.

• Wellcome Climate Impacts Awards - find out more and register for the February 12th webinar.

• Call for contributions to an ECREA Book on AI Infrastructure and Sustainability - deadline 29th February.

• There is still time to submit abstracts for the What Works Climate Solutions summit - deadline is February 15th.

And finally a tip on Saving (for) the Planet from Project Drawdown: Move your savings to a Green Bank to stop them funding fossil industries.

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. If it has been forwarded to you, and you would like to receive future editions, you can subscribe here