Special Event: The 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Summit & the Second Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo. The 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Summit was held from October 20 to 22 at the Huangpu Expo Park in Shanghai.
Michele Wucker, author of The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore and an expert on global risk and economic policy, attended the industry-themed forum Advancing High-Quality Development with Eastern Strength and delivered remarks.
Michele Wucker said that US companies are showing strong enthusiasm in discussions about token applications, but the quality of current AI token deployment still needs scrutiny. She noted that many companies use AI to generate tokens, with application scenarios mostly concentrated in general-purpose tasks such as replying to emails, while effective deployment of AI in high-value frontier areas such as medical imaging and cancer research remains uncertain.
She proposed that the industry should explore a supporting compensatory token mechanism that factors in the external resource costs consumed by AI operations, including energy, water, land and minerals. She said US companies have paid relatively insufficient attention to this dimension, while this sustainability conference held in China has built a good international exchange platform.
Michele Wucker further analyzed the commercial sustainability challenges facing the AI industry. Current profit levels of AI companies are not yet sufficient to cover huge upfront investments and borrowing costs, and within the industrial chain, who bears the investment costs, who enjoys the returns, and who bears the negative costs brought by technology remain unresolved questions. In her view, if AI application tokenization and financialization are to be advanced, it is necessary to distinguish among different application types, reduce the negative effects attached to technology, and move toward a more sustainable development path.
In response to a popular industry view, she issued a warning: many people believe artificial intelligence will become a tool for addressing climate change, but the reality is quite the opposite, as AI development itself will bring new challenges such as resource consumption. As a risk research expert, she cautioned that while the new economy of computing-power tokens releases industrial vitality, it must squarely face potential risks such as resource consumption and cost sharing, and balance technological innovation with sustainable development goals.
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