Technology and Innovation
• Books
What is Planetary Health?
Artificial Intelligence and Innovation
AI is rapidly reshaping economies, decision-making, and daily life, offering enormous potential while posing significant social and environmental risks.
We are entering a Hybrid Tipping Zone, where the rapid mainstreaming of artificial intelligence (AI) and the global race for technological supremacy collide with human agency and planetary limits.
— Cornelia C. Walther, PhD, Chair of the AI & Innovation Working Group
Despite the potential to boost global GDP by up to 14% by 2030, the unchecked expansion of AI poses significant risks to Planetary Health. Our growing digital dependency, the erosion of decision-making autonomy, and widening ecological imbalance are pushing humanity toward the edges of planetary boundaries. This shift threatens all of Earth’s life support systems.
20% of the growth in global electricity demand in advanced economies could be due to data centers by 2030
The environmental cost of AI is mounting: in advanced economies, data centers are projected to account for over 20% of the increase in electricity demand by 2030, yet fewer than 1 in 3 AI initiatives include social or environmental impact assessments.
ProSocial AI acts as a counter-catalyst: a design and governance approach that seeks to ensures technology serves both people and the planet. The 4T Framework—Tailored, Trained, Tested, Targeted—guides AI systems to be context-relevant, inclusively trained, transparently validated, and purpose-driven. This approach is anchored in Hybrid Intelligence, leveraging the complementarity of Natural and Artificial intelligences, and grounded in Double Literacy, which integrates human literacy (self, society, sustainability) with algorithmic literacy (data, design, decision-making). ProSocial AI has the potential to harness technology to benefit both people and planet, ensuring these systems are working to mitigate rather than exacerbate environmental decline.
Want to help shape the future of technology for planetary wellbeing? Join the Planetary Health Roadmap’s AI & Innovation Working Group by filling out this form.
Key Resources
Technology and Innovation
• Books
Human Leadership for Humane Technology
Technology and Innovation Resources
Infectious Diseases Technology and Innovation
Ivermectin Shows Promise in Cutting Malaria Transmission in Africa. Nature Africa.
• News
Research and Evaluation Technology and Innovation
10 Emerging Technology Solutions for Planetary Health. World Economic Forum.
New report from the World Economic Forum and Frontiers identifies 10 technologies with the potential to accelerate climate action, restore ecosystems, and drive sustainable innovation within planetary boundaries.
• Research & Reports
Technology and Innovation
Why Prosocial AI Matters For The Future Of Planetary Health. Forbes.
Most people experience these as separate crises: AI as a technological disruption, planetary degradation as an environmental problem. But they are deeply entangled, and understanding this entanglement is our best hope for a regenerative future.
• News
Mental Health Technology and Innovation
The 4H Blueprint: Space, ProSocial AI And Planetary Health. Forbes.
• News
Air Pollution Waste Management
Researchers Develop Groundbreaking Method to Turn Air Pollution into Useful Material: ‘Significant.’ Yahoo! News.
Scientists have developed a groundbreaking way to turn air pollution into plastic, a process that could help clean the air, cut down on waste, and provide new raw materials without relying on dirty fuels.
• Research & Reports
News Related to Artificial Intelligence and Innovation
Forest Therapy Nurtures Minds at Deakin University
