Artificial Intelligence to advance Circular Economy

A key principle of the circular economy is keeping materials at their highest and best use. But with the amount of material flowing through our industrial system, “highest and best” can be a moving target.

It doesn’t have to be, according to a new report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google. The white paper posits that artificial intelligence (AI) can be a valuable tool to help accelerate and scale the transition to a circular economy while creating new forms of value.

AI is an umbrella term for technologies that can learn, reason and perform human-like functions (pattern recognition, prediction, optimization) with more accuracy, speed and efficiency than humans. Given humanity’s inefficient, waste-ridden industrial systems, AI can help solve some complex problems that stand between the current linear system and a more circular one.

Find the complete report here: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/artificial-intelligence-and-the-circular-economy