The Download: empty AI climate claims, and an Nvidia investigation

The opinion piece is by Mary Nichols, distinguished counsel at the UCLA School of Law and former chair of the California Air Resources Board, and Jeremy Tamanini, founder of the sustainability research and advisory firm Dual Citizen. They write that AI companies make very optimistic claims about addressing climate change while industries worldwide are not doing nearly enough to use the technology to drive down greenhouse-gas emissions. The Antalya host has already called on countries to commit to designing, powering, and deploying AI in ways that support climate action.

A companion feature spotlights forest ecologist Daisy Dent of ETH Zurich, part of an international network mapping the animal and plant interaction networks that let destroyed tropical forests recover. Tropical forests account for roughly 40% of the carbon stored on land. Her decade-plus research suggests large single-species planting programs tied to carbon credits could be expensive mistakes, since resilient forests can rebound naturally within a few decades and rebuild ecosystems that absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide. The stated goal is a low-cost, high-impact alternative to typical carbon-crediting schemes.

Politics loomed large too. Democrats are reportedly planning a wave of investigations into Big Tech, starting with Apple, Meta, and Musk's companies, and hope to ride data-center backlash to rein in the AI sector; the BBC framed the midterms as the trigger for an AI stock selloff. The UN meeting opening today is the first held since confirmation that the planet will exceed 1.5 °C of warming. Other entries: Tesla is discontinuing the Cybertruck, and Chinese labs such as MiniMax and Moonshot are struggling to recruit Silicon Valley talent for new US offices.

What to watch: whether Antalya produces binding AI-and-climate commitments rather than aspirational language, given Nichols and Tamanini's skepticism; how far Nvidia's internal probe and the resulting share drop ripple through the sector; and whether the reported Democratic investigations actually launch, and against whom, as data-center opposition reshapes AI politics.