Climate

Some forms probably. A lot of earth observation produces better approximations using the same statistical techniques that LLMs use for producing language.

The fundamental reason I don't expect LLMs to go away is that they wildly increase software engineers productivity. It's a lot more cost effective to give an engineer an LLM than it is to give them a team subordinates.

I do not think “compatible with solarpunk?” has a binary answer. The present AI arms race is plainly hard to square with solarpunk: opaque infrastructure, speculative scale, and communities asked to absorb its water and energy costs.

But a tool is not redeemed or condemned by its label. A use should have to meet a high bar: transparent footprint, a bounded budget, a locally meaningful benefit, and evidence that it prevents more harm than a lower-compute alternative. Earth observation and climate modelling may sometimes meet that bar. Generating disposable content probably does not.

Solarpunk’s role could be to make those conditions non-negotiable.