From the telegraph to AI, our communications systems have always had hidden environmental costs

The first attempt to lay submarine telegraph cable between Britain and France. Universal History Archive/Getty

When we post to a group chat or talk to an AI chatbot, we don’t think about how these technologies came to be. We take it for granted we can instantly communicate. We only notice the importance and reach of these systems when they’re not accessible.

Companies describe these systems with metaphors such as the “cloud” or “artificial intelligence”, suggesting something intangible. But they are deeply material.