The world’s digital landscape is rapidly evolving, especially with the use of generative AI getting increasingly popular. From homework help to priority lists, coding to creativity, many questions lead us to ChatGPT’s blank screen. While generative AI like Chat GPT is undoubtedly helpful in some regards, it is largely detrimental to the environment.
But how does using AI even have an environmental impact? To begin to understand, it is important to grasp how AI works. Generative AIs, like Chat GPT, process requests and responses in “tokens”. A “token” can be part of a word or a full word, depending on its commonness. Depending on how long a prompt or a response is, it uses a different number of tokens with an average sentence being about 20-30 tokens.
Adding up the tokens from both the prompt and the response can help to quantify how much energy a single prompt can take. According to MIT Sloan, “processing a million tokens …emits an amount of carbon similar to that produced by a gas-powered vehicle driven five to 20 miles.”
Additionally, every time a user asks ChatGPT a question, it runs through millions of possible answers before crafting the response presented to you. This requires staggering amounts of electricity, increasing carbon emissions and water usage. “[AI] data centers account for 1% to 2% of overall global energy demand, similar to what experts estimate for the airline industry,” MIT Sloan notes and the demand for and use of AI only grows daily. This scale of energy consumption is staggering and has an undeniable effect on the planet.
On top of all of that, AI even uses large amounts of water. Just like your computer gets too hot when you have too many tabs open, data centers that host generative AI models get overpowered by the constant prompts, requiring water to cool them down. The cooling techniques often pull from “already stressed watershed areas,” increasing the detrimental effect AI has on the environment.
All of this is to say that AI is not good for the Earth. And that was enough for me to take a step away from it. While it may seem like a massive sacrifice, the truth of the matter is that we’ve only had access to consumer-facing AI for a few years, and life isn’t yet tied to its use. AI can be a helpful tool in some cases, but for me, the end doesn’t justify the means.
In a world where every unavoidable action taken, place driven, food eaten has an irreparable environmental impact, it can often feel like there is no escape and no alternative for our detrimental effect on the earth.
This is in no way saying that the large environmental effects of AI use are the average consumer’s responsibility. The major culprits of its effects are corporations integrating AI into their business practices. Undoubtedly, it is a difficult line to walk. At what point does using AI increase sustainability and at what point does its environmental impact override its uses?
Either way, although corporations have a big influence on AI’s impact, that doesn’t mean our individual actions have no impact. We have the power to bring about positive change, and it is in our best interest to do so.
While you don’t have to swear it off completely, choosing not to use AI in certain cases can lead to positive change. If cutting something new and unnecessary out of our lives can help our world, why shouldn’t we?