PRINCETON – A variant of religious fervor, one that trades in GPUs rather than gospel, is sweeping through Silicon Valley. The dizzying valuations of AI startups that may never be profitable, and massive capital investment, have fueled debate on whether this euphoria constitutes a bubble. Skeptics see financial mania, whereas AI evangelists herald the birth of a digital deity. For the true believers, no price – in dollars or carbon – is too high for the arrival of a “superintelligence” that can solve all of humanity’s problems.

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Let us grant the optimists their miracle. Suppose that in 2035 (around the time when global warming is projected to exceed the 1.5° Celsius limit set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement), after $15 trillion in investment and consumption of massive amounts of energy, we create a “mind” seemingly capable of solving any problem. The first conversation between creator and creation might go something like this:

Human: “Hello, Superintelligence. We have sacrificed our capital and energy grid to........

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