Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
In today’s hyper-globalized, convenience-obsessed society, most neglect to fully understand the impact their lifestyles have on the planet. The more commercialized consumer industries become, the further removed people are from conceptualizing their role in the acceleration of climate change.
It seems there is no escape from the daily onslaught of media reports about the countless new ways in which people are contributing to devastatingly catastrophic environmental disasters –– and for good reason. More recently, however, one popular invention in particular has captivated the nervous attention of climate scientists and journalists alike: artificial intelligence.
Just when it seemed the climate crisis was bad enough, it turns out the world’s hot new technological obsession is a one-way-ticket to unimaginable catastrophe. The function of AI is detrimental to ecological processes both directly and indirectly in a multitude of ways, and it should no longer be available for casual use if society hopes to achieve a sustainable future.
AI works through algorithms and data processing operations designed to simulate human intelligence. These functions are carried out by immensely powerful computer units, usually housed in giant data processing centers. According to a 2024 report by the International Energy Agency, the power these computers use to operate AI could be responsible for 4% of annual global energy consumption by 2026. That’s nearly equivalent to the annual energy consumption of Japan, which emitted 944 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2023.
In addition to its sickeningly extreme energy demands, AI requires a similarly significant amount of water to operate properly. The data centers that carry out AI’s information processing functions reach high temperatures very quickly, a direct result of their intensive energy needs. Because of this rather ironic effect, water must be run through the machines to cool them back down. Water is also required to produce the microchips responsible for AI function and to fuel the majority of data centers.
A report published through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Center for Secure Water details that large-scale data centers in the U.S. are capable of consuming the per capita water needs of thousands on a daily basis. The water demands of Google’s data centers alone roughly averaged 550,000 gallons per day in 2023.
Water is the planet’s most scarce natural resource. Only around 0.5% of the water on Earth is fresh and accessible for human consumption. As the population grows, so does the need for agricultural water supply. Instead of preserving this precious, life-sustaining resource, people are pumping it through machines so they don’t have to write their 250-word class discussion posts and can see what they’d look like as “Total Drama Island” characters. This is perhaps the least intelligent trade-off in all of human history.
Now, this is not to say AI as a whole is ridiculously unnecessary. Certain incarnations of AI have exhibited serious promise for the future of all kinds of beneficial research and technological optimization. When used with care and intention, AI could make a world of difference for vital research fields like clinical predictability. The main problem with AI is its generative capabilities, which have been sensationalized and made commonplace wherever their functions have proven to be applicable.
Using AI to generate emails, essays and any kind of written academic work unless for a disability accommodation is genuinely pitiful. Some AI services like speech to text generation are immensely beneficial to those with physical limitations, but there is absolutely no excuse for blatant plagiarism.
Using AI to manipulate images and generate creative pieces for fun is excessive and insulting to the careers of real artists. It can also be dangerous in contexts besides academics, like politics, mental health and social welfare, especially when dealing with the likenesses of real people.
It is important to remember there are always political ramifications to consumption under a capitalist society. By using the services of ChatGPT and other products by the OpenAI corporation, one directly deepens the pockets of dangerously influential billionaires like Elon Musk, an early investor in the program.
Supporting billionaires like Musk funds the environmental damage that results from their other big-corporation business activities. It then also reinforces the corrupt political structure and rampant wealth disparity of the U.S. and other countries by proxy.
While generative AI like ChatGPT has proven to be useful as a tool for prompt inspiration and casual research, the convenience it provides does not outweigh the negative consequences its overall existence has on the environment. Society must begin to use AI thoughtfully, and that means casual access to AI should not be publicly available.
A sustainable future has absolutely no room for massive amounts of rampant energy use, and generative AI is perhaps the ultimate representation of just how comfortable people have become with wasting precious resources on unnecessary conveniences.
If previous reports of AI’s effects on mental health, creative integrity, employment rates and politics weren’t enough — and they should be — now it is undeniable the generative AI industry has very little ethical justification. The planet is not worth it.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.