I’d like to welcome the distinguished members of our audience:
President of the International Committee of the Red Cross,
Minister,
Ambassador,
Federal Councilor,
National Councilor,
Mayors and other city officials,
Chairman and other members of the ETH Board,

President of swissuniversities,
University rectors and other representatives,
Representatives of the HES schools,
EPFL President Emeritus,

And our new graduates,
Along with their parents and other family members.

I’ll begin my address with the disclaimer that’s become standard practice today for all speeches: “I didn’t use ChatGPT to write this.” But why would you believe me? Maybe because I’m standing right here in front of you, and because I represent an institution – EPFL – that you’ve come to respect, and that you’re now graduating from!

But when it comes down to it, I hope you’ll believe me because trust is the very cement that binds a civilization together. And trust has become even more valuable, and rare, these days, at a time of virtual interaction, digital information and easily manipulable data. Along these lines, I’d like to put three questions before you:

1. First, what defines a civilization? If we’re to say that ChatGPT – and artificial intelligence more broadly – are posing a threat to civilization, we need to be clear on precisely what we mean.
2. Second, what exactly are the threats resulting from AI? As scientists and engineers, we serve as both the sorcerer’s apprentices of new technology and the ones responsible for making sure it’s used appropriately.
3. Third, what challenges are being caused by the combined energy and climate crisis – and what responses can a school like EPFL deliver? While the challenges arising from AI are mostly virtual, those from climate change are at once tangible and critical.

For my first question – “What defines a civilization?” – you may find it surprising coming from me, since it boils down to an issue of the humanities.

US anthropologist Margaret Mead, when asked what she believed to be the very first sign of civilization on our planet, is said to have replied “a healed femur.” Her explanation: “Out in the wild, if an animal breaks its leg, it dies, as it can neither escape predators nor search for food. A human out in the jungle with a broken femur would never survive – unless other people looked after them until the bone healed. That is where civilization begins.” So I’ll conclude that the first sign of civilization is compassion.

So my first message to you as freshly minted EPFL graduates, as you prepare to go out into an often jungle-like world: Remember that what civilization really means is showing compassion. In a world that seems to be guided by the concept “survival of the fittest,” be kind and be civilized.

Now that we’ve established what defines a civilization, we can turn to the threats that some see arising from AI.

Let’s go back to ChatGPT, a black box that generates surprisingly realistic text, or we could take the example of Midjourney, a program that produces highly realistic images.

The real question, however, isn’t what these applications’ output looks like or how realistic it is – it’s whether the output is truthful. We all know that these magic machines work by compiling the information found on the internet and unearthing impressive correlations. But we also know that correlation is not causation. What sets scientific research apart is that it strives to find the underlying causation by combing through datasets and other information.

Let’s look back in history, to the time of Socrates. The Oracle of Delphi said that Socrates was the wisest person in Athens. To reach her conclusion she used the Socratic method, evaluating the politicians, poets and craftsmen of the time to search for the wisest among them. She found that these individuals either weren’t aware of what they knew, or thought they knew more than they actually did. The Oracle concluded that Socrates was wiser than all of them because he was conscious of what he knew and of what he didn’t.

ChatGPT obviously wouldn’t pass this Socratic test. Even though the program “talks” a lot (some would even say it chats), it has no idea of whether what it’s saying is true. Nor is it conscious of what it knows and what it doesn’t. ChatGPT isn’t aware of its limitations – and some of its most admirative users believe the program is omniscient. And it tends to replicate or even reinforce the biases inherent to large datasets found (not to say stolen) on the internet. This is a classic case of technology controlled by listed companies, where instad what’s needed is governance by members of society – the very society that these companies make money from. The fact that these companies have a near-monopoly only makes things worse.

Getting back to the AI-driven black boxes, as you certainly know, they are capable of generating hallucinating output based on wild extrapolations from poorly processed data. And as you also certainly know, all civilized societies have adopted laws to regulate hallucinogens. But when it comes to AI, there’s a glaring lack of any sort of governance.

This brings me to my second message: as scientists and engineers, you’ll be at the controls of new technology with massive potential. Our society has given you a top-notch education enabling you to master this technology. Be conscious of the technology’s impact and make sure it’s used appropriately in a way that advances the open, democratic and egalitarian society that trained you.

In addition to its lack of governance and propensity to generate fake news, AI has another Achille’s heel, at the intersection of petaflops and megajoules, that is, processing power and energy use.

In other words, with AI programs, the laws of computer science run up against the laws of physics. While computer science follows Moore’s law, in that processing power doubles every 18 to 24 months, physics must adhere to our planetary boundaries. This naturally throws up a second major challenge, and one that’s a genuine threat to civilization. I’m talking of course about climate change and its societal, economic and technological ramifications.

Because let’s be honest, climate change is the result of the laws of nature colliding with the laws of economics. While the laws of nature have not changed since the Big Bang some 14 billion years ago, the laws of economics have been established by society. This brings to mind the following cartoon published in the New Yorker in 2012.

I’ll read the caption out to you: “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

I don’t want to get into politics – a potentially long digression. I’ll just paraphrase Blaise Pascal’s well-known aphorism: “Politics has reasons that reason cannot understand.”

But I do want to talk about responses to climate change – and here, EPFL is hard at work. We’re conducting R&D in the areas of clean energy, carbon capture, clean hydrogen, smart grids and more, putting us on the path to net zero. We’ve also introduced a joint initiative – the Coalition for Green Energy and Storage – with ETH Zurich, PSI and EMPA. The Coalition aims to accelerate the urgently needed energy transition. We’ve seen a lot of interest in this initiative from philanthropic organizations, the business world, policymakers and startups. It’s a good example of how a technical university can play a key role in responding to a major societal challenge.

And what is the EPFL community doing? This spring, following extensive discussions, we unveiled an ambitious climate strategy that encompasses our core missions of education, research and innovation as well as campus life. The only way we’ll be able to rise to the climate challenge is by fundamentally changing, fixing and adapting how our society works. And the best way to go about that is to start with EPFL – a large-scale research lab in itself.

Computer programs, including AI, eat up a lot of power. At EPFL, we’re aiming to cut this power use as reflected in our slogan “Think twice, compute once.” One example of our efforts in this area is the EcoCloud initiative to design energy-efficient data centers.

When it comes to climate change, we need to think long term. A walk back through history on a logarithmic scale can illustrate this.

10,000 years ago, the land right where we’re sitting was covered in ice reaching up over our heads.

1,000 years ago, the ice had melted and we were in the Middle Ages, a dark period for humanity.

100 years ago, we had just finished one world war and another was on the horizon. And our economy was shifting to one driven by fossil fuels – it was the start of the Anthropocene.

10 years ago, the Paris Agreement was about to be reached, with the goal of limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C.

And in the past year, you were closing in on your goal of getting your EPFL diploma!

Now we’re calling on you to look ahead 1, 10, 100, or even 1,000 years, and act responsibly.

This brings me to my third message: Dear graduates, in the face of climate change, think long term but act short term. You need to take responsible steps today because – we mustn’t forget – the climate has a very long memory.

It’s time for me to wrap up. You’re fortunate to be EPFL graduates, but this also comes with a responsibility. The same holds true for us, in that we’re lucky to count you among our alumni, but we also have a responsibility.

Only by joining forces will we be able to overcome the challenges before us. Always remember that our duty is to serve civilization.

There’s a fine line between optimism and pessimism, and that line is trust. Today I’m optimistic because I have confidence in you, your sharp mind, your solid training, your enthusiasm and your generosity.

This is reflected especially in those of you who helped update the Archimedean Oath, which is the equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath but for scientists, engineers and architects. You will be asked to take this Oath when you receive your diplomas from your departments. My thanks goes to the students who worked on the Oath.

And to all our new graduates, I’m sure you’ll do amazing things, and above all, that you’ll do the right thing. We extend our gratitude in advance.

Thank you for your attention.

Martin Vetterli
EPFL President