In a hot air balloon, you don’t fight against the wind. We change altitude to find the current that leads in the right direction. It is the same with the Winds of Life, and AI is one of them. The future of humanity will depend on the altitude at which we sail.
Sustainability is one of the areas where this choice is already being played out. AI can lead us to greater efficiency. But it can also lead us in the opposite direction.
To the first, AI makes it possible to do better with less: balancing an intelligent electricity network, by integrating more intermittent sources to distribute them at the right time where they are needed, by storing the surplus and anticipating needs, optimizing air, maritime and land trajectories, increasing yields, detecting water leaks, managing a circular economy.
It’s not science fiction. Solutions certified by the Solar Impulse Foundation are already using AI to reduce the consumption of buildings, accommodate more renewables on the networks or design decarbonization projects. Here, AI accelerates efficiency, especially if waste heat from data centers is used to heat cities.
But there is another altitude. Technology capable of helping us save energy can also become a driver of overconsumption. Capable of increasing our ability to heal, understand and resolve problems, it can also increase our excesses. More videos generated and delivered faster. Autonomous vehicles running empty because it becomes easy to get them around. Calculations, stored data, models requested without real added value. And above all a global electricity consumption of data centers which, according to the IEA, could more than double by 2030, to reach around 945 TWh.
The same goes for security. One altitude will make it possible to strengthen it for the benefit of all, another will be able to industrialize disinformation, produce deepfakes on a scale, automate cyberattacks and political manipulation, strengthen abusive surveillance and distance human beings from decisions that affect their rights and security. We can go in the wrong direction very quickly.
The wisdom or folly of humanity
In a balloon, we have meteorologists who study the winds and advise the pilot on the best altitude. I remember when my people warned me: “Do you want to fly quickly in the wrong direction, or slowly in the right direction?”
This is what is missing in our society. Because in the end, it is not about AI but about the wisdom or madness of humanity and the governance that they will put in place.
Because behind the direction that AI will take lies the place that we want to leave to human beings in the decisions that affect their future: security, democracy, culture, work, distribution of powers. We still need to have the time and the ability to decide. Some of the AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic are themselves calling to slow down and find solutions to regulate. But geopolitical logic pushes us to accelerate: Donald Trump rejects these calls in the name of technological competition with China. The race is frantic, even though we have not yet collectively decided where it should take us. The quickest route is not necessarily the wisest, or the safest, or the one that will ultimately lead us to our destination.
We are at exactly the same point as in 1945 when Oppenheimer proposed to the American president to negotiate with the Soviets to abandon the development of the H bomb. Truman refused, saying that this would push the Americans to fall behind in their defense. If only one protagonist adopts the correct altitude, but not the others, he will lose his position as leader. Everyone must accept, and today this is more than illusory in our fragmented world.
A glimmer of hope exists. With its Framework Convention on AI, human rights, democracy and the rule of law, the Council of Europe has paved the way for the first legally binding international treaty on AI. An essential principle: technological power must remain subject to the rules that our societies set for themselves collectively. In order to guarantee human control when our rights, our security or our democracy are at stake.
Technology will always evolve faster than our institutions. This should not condemn us to follow the trend chosen by others. It’s not about slowing down the wind, but about choosing the altitude. Power is technological; the course must remain human. If we go in the wrong direction, it will never be the AI’s fault, it will be ours!
Ultimately, the question is not simply who will win the AI race, but what kind of world we want to live in once that race is over.
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