AI and the climate crisis pose existential risks. The law offers a way to reduce them | Robert Reich

<p>Liability lawsuits have held tobacco, oil and pharma companies to account in the past. AI investors won’t ignore this threat</p><p>The most basic function of government is to protect people from harm. Two growing phenomena – the climate crisis and AI – pose escalating risks of <em>extraordinary</em> harm.</p><p>The climate crisis is already causing floods, wildfires, drought and record heat. AI agents are already escaping super-secure environments to hack into systems they’re supposed to avoid.</p><p>Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at <a href="http://robertreich.substack.com/">robertreich.substack.com</a>. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763803/coming-up-short-by-robert-b-reich/">out now in the US</a> and <a href="https://www.guardianbookshop.com/coming-up-short-9781917189606/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article">in the UK</a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/09/ai-climate-change-liability-lawsuits">Continue reading...</a>