npj Climate Action 3 , Article number: 117 (2024) Cite this article Metrics Climate change decision making is complex and subject to attempted influence from actors with diverse agendas. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies are emerging as new tools in influencing public discourses and decisions, which will increasingly be applied to climate change issues. We define a typology of influence of climate decisions by GenAI, present example cases, and highlight urgent research needs in this field. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a suite of emerging algorithms that can generate new content, commonly text, images, audio, or video. Content from GenAI can be indistinguishable from that produced by a human, and even exceed the quality of art or writing created by many people. GenAI technology is cost-effective and accessible, allowing large quantities of material to be created by almost anyone. GenAI technology will influence public discourse and politics, and impact the future of human decisions at a global scale 1 , 2 , 3 . It is highly likely that GenAI technology is already being used by actors on different sides of climate change discussions, yet we know little about its potential to influence decisions made by individuals, organisations, or nations 4 . Climate change decision making is highly complex, involving billions of actors around the world and levels of social complexity ranging from individual choices, to community processes, to international diplomacy 5 , 6 . Decisions must be made regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as the distribution of finite resources between these objectives 7 , 8 . Climate change decision making has a history of influence and manipulation between actors, exemplified by the contested nature of the scientific consensus on human-induced climate change itself 9 , 10 . Throughout this history, actors in science, the […]