Bleg ...

I recently accepted an invitation to talk about the environmental implications of machine intelligence and automation.  This is a little out of the main stream for me (most of us?), but the good thing about an open-ended talk like this is that one can ask a lot of questions and simply suggest possible answers!  But still, I need help posing the right questions and what's a blog for if I can't use it to beg for help?

The way I see it, I can approach this from two angles:

Effect of machine intelligence and automation on the environment, i.e. things such as:

• the use of robots to enable easier and more routine clean up of environmental disasters
• the ability to clean up areas that are unsafe for humans
• reduction in the need for physical infrastructure if travel, commutes, etc. are replaced by virtual meetings

The effect of the use of machine intelligence and automation in environmental decision making i.e. things such as:

• Do the errors common to machine intelligence (the inability to extrapolate, for example) make it harder to predict extreme events when such statistical methods become very common?
• As forecasts improve in accuracy, do the customers of such forecasts make "hard" decisions more often, i.e. instead of hedging their bets?

What do you think? Is there material I should reference? Incidents that I should mention? Angles I should consider? Send me suggestions!