I talk a lot about bias, black boxes, and privacy, but perhaps my focus is too narrow. In this conversation, Aimee and I discuss what she calls “sustainable AI.” We focus on the environmental impacts of AI, the ethical impacts of those environmental impacts, and who is paying the social cost of those who benefit from AI.

Aimee van Wynsberghe is the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bonn in Germany. Aimee is director of the Institute for Science and Ethics and the Bonn Sustainable AI lab. She is co-director of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics and a member of the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on AI. She is a founding editor for the international peer-reviewed journal AI & Ethics and member of the World Economic Forum's Global Futures Council on Artificial Intelligence and Humanity. She is author of the book Healthcare Robots: Ethics, Design, and Implementation and is regularly interviewed by media outlets. In each of her roles, Aimee works to uncover the ethical risks associated with emerging robotics and AI. Aimee’s current research, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, brings attention to the sustainability of AI by studying the hidden environmental costs of developing and using AI.