The AI surge: how sustainability and responsibility are being compromised
Summary
The piece reviews recent AI industry expansion, highlighting massive investment in data centres, rising energy demand, deregulation, and associated sustainability and ethical challenges.
Key quotes
AI should be judged not on how much it benefits business and ‘innovators’ but on how much it benefits humanity.
You should expect OpenAI to spend trillions of dollars on data centre construction in the not very distant future.
the development, deployment and use of such a technology cannot be left to the whims of markets alone
lack of current power is already a constraint on growth.
Authored by Dr. Philip Inglesant, the article appears in Responsible Science journal issue 8 (advance online 24 March 2026). It analyzes AI spending, data‑centre growth, power needs, and regulatory roll‑backs up to early 2026.