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AI: The Actual Impact

Would you trade free homework help for a world in ruin?
AI: The Actual Impact

The Issue with Generative AI: Environmental Edition

For a tool that is supposed to help us create a more convenient future, Artificial Intelligence seems to be helping us to create a more concerning, environmentally damaging one.  

With every prompt, every image generated, and every question answered using generative AI contributes to damaging and using up finite (limited) resources.

How Exactly is AI Hurting the Environment?

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Since AI is completely digital, hearing about its’ negative impact on the environment may seem like a bit of a stretch. However, it is similar to how fossil fuels hurt the environment by emitting harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, and use up limited resources such as animal and plant remains (which are non-renewable and take millions of years to replenish) in order to be created.

Not only does AI run on similar fuels, it runs on bigger amounts of electricity as well.

“A request made through ChatGPT, an AI-based virtual assistant, consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search, reported the International Energy Agency,” notes the UN Environment Programme.

Between AI and engineering AI, they use up all of this electricity. This in turn also uses up basic resources vital to everyday survival.

Water is another finite resource used in both the construction of AI data centers and in the cooling of servers and consoles that run them, to ensure they don’t overheat. 

The UN Environment Programme comments, “Third, data centres use water during construction and, once operational, to cool electrical components. Globally, AI-related infrastructure may soon consume six times more water than Denmark, a country of 6 million, according to one estimate. That is a problem when a quarter of humanity already lacks access to clean water and sanitation.”

The data above is in regards to multiple preexisting data centers. However, according to the UN Environment Programme, “Driven in part by the explosion of AI, the number of data centres has surged to 8 million from 500,000 in 2012, and experts expect the technology’s demands on the planet to keep growing.”

Why Should You Care?

One main reason to care about the environmental impact of AI is the fact that you do live on this planet. We all do, and if we want to continue to do so, we have to start taking better care of our home. 

The cons of AI in regards to environment outweigh the pros, and the pros mainly rely on AI expanding and getting smarter and more accurate in the future. Anything helpful, like more precise weather prediction, will happen much later on, anyway.

The expansion of AI data centers means the use of more land, which is already being taken for residential and commercial areas. More land being used means less resources, which does not bode well for the future.

Along with the environmental impacts of Artificial Intelligence, there are also impacts on the brain and person in general.

By generating an image using AI, you miss out on an opportunity to come up with something yourself and feel that sense of importance and accomplishment. By having your assignment done by a bot, you miss out on an opportunity to prove yourself academically. And by using AI for every little thing, you miss out on a change to live in an environmentally happier world.   

What Can You Do?

To minimize the dangers and impact of AI, ones’ usage of AI must also be minimized. Less AI usage means less damage is done to the environment. 

While AI does exist to make lives easier, it does not exist to do everything for you. Living in a healthy world infinitely outweighs not having to do an annoying assignment yourself. 

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