Final Summary Reader's Response

 The article “A Little Robot That Cleans the Beach, One Butt at a Time” (2021) by Gonderman discusses about an Artificial Intelligence (AI) beach buggy robot named BeachBot in short for BB. BB has a very distinct goal, which is to clean up all cigarette butts on the beach.  However, as stated in the article, in the midst of the World Cleanup Day in September 2020, the BB was only able to scoop up 10 cigarette butts in 30 minutes. BB's aim is to be able to keep up with cleaning the 4.5 trillion cigarettes unethically thrown per year. 

As cigarette butts are seen being thrown unethically, Mother Earth will be further damaged. In order to stop and reduce the harmful impacts, BB robots and other forms of AI will progress and aims to clean up beaches of cigarette butts despite the fact that these devices might also produce its carbon footprints.

Firstly, BB's robot specifications and its ability to detect cigarette butts will be the start to a cleaner beach which is supported by  Gonderman (2021). The battery-powered AI, BB have robotic eyes that are specifically made to look for cigarette butts on the beach based on their "size, shape, and angle they land on the sand" while not stuck in any other trash. BB will then use its "image-detection algorithm" from the 2,000 images that TechTic, the company that made BB, paid to contributors of the images and learn how to look for cigarette butts. TechTics also has smaller robots that help to locate the cigarette butts and notify BB to allow BB to clean them up.

Secondly, cigarette butts are very harmful and should be cleared up before they further damage the beaches and the sea. In the article, Root (2019) states that cigarette butts pollute the sea and are hazardous to the sea creatures. Cigarette filters are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate. "When tossed into the environment, they dump not only that plastic, but also the nicotine, heavy metals, and many other chemicals they’ve absorbed into the surrounding environment." Furthermore, the cigarette butts look like food on the sea surface for the sea creatures which can be dangerous if the sea creatures ingest them. It is critical for us to tackle the littered cigarette butts due to their harmfulness to our ecosystems by introducing BB and its assistance to clean up our damaged beaches. 

Thirdly, AI is beneficial in keeping the environment clean. According to an article by Gow (2020), "AI can positively impact on our environments in agriculture, energy, transportation, water resource management, manufacturing, facilities management, and materials science". AI can also help to reduce the impact towards carbon footprints. In another article, renowned AI ethicist Coeckelbergh (2020, as cited in van Wynsberghe,  2021), also suggests using AI to solve our environmental and climate issues. Hence, BB’s capabilities and productivity can be increased as AI progresses to be more advanced in the future.

However, using AI can also cause carbon footprint to increase which can be supported by  Gow (2020), stating that AI also produces and increases carbon footprints despite the fact that the AI is trying to reduce its carbon footprint. Furthermore, "just because the most common methods of AI today aren't significant carbon producers, doesn't mean they might not become serious contributors in the future".  In addition, BB is not able to sustain forever and requires some form of charging of batteries. Hence, it is clear that the BB will produce its own carbon footprint and its batteries are not 24-7 powered*. 

In conclusion, BB will clean up cigarette butts more efficiently in the future despite having limitations such as the emission of carbon footprints and its current capability of clearing up 175 thousand cigarette butts per year. However, there will always be people smoking and littering cigarette butts and that is where BB will come in handy. Hence, I do believe that in the future we will be able to invent an AI that could solve our environmental pollution problems and at the same time keep its carbon footprint emission at its lowest.

References 

Gow, G. (2020, August 21) Environmental Sustainability and AI. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/glenngow/2020/08/21/environmental-sustainability-and-ai/?sh=64bc21b97db3

Gonderman, M. (2021) A Little Robot That Cleans the Beach, One Butt at a Time. Motortrend. https://www.motortrend.com/news/beachbot-ai-robot-techtics-cleans-cigarette-butts-beach/

Root, T. (2019, August 9) Cigarette butts are toxic plastic pollution. Should they be banned? National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/cigarettes-story-of-plastic

van Wynsberghe, A. (2021, February 26) Sustainable AI: AI for sustainability and the sustainability of AI. AI Ethics 1, 213–218 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00043-6