Paul Schütze, PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Osnabrück and associated fellow of our RTG will visit us in the beginning of July, and present his PhD-project on AI as ideology in the context of the climate crisis. The title of his paper, which he will give on July 2, 2026 at MP2, is “Green Politics and the Authoritarian Backlash”.
We are looking forward to discussing with Paul.
Abstract of the paper:
For decades climate politics has run on the promise that liberal democratic capitalism can outrun its own ecological contradictions through innovation, through technologies of carbon capture, through mechanisms of green growth, and lately through visions such as “sustainable AI.“ These promises are now collapsing. As generative AI’s energy and water demands explode, the same firms that once marketed AI for sustainability are quietly dropping their climate pledges, powering data centers with jet turbines and gas generators. This is a symptom of a deeper shift in climate politics. From green liberal democratic politics toward a reactionary nationalism. Tracing this shift in democratic sovereignty and legitimacy, this talk asks what happens to democratic ideals once solving the climate crisis has been abandoned.