While the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, there is information that hasn’t been brought to the eyes of the public. AI is a helpful tool. It allows individuals to complete their tasks quicker and/or easier, it helps anywhere from reading a contract to helping students brainstorm essay topics. This has made lives easier, but it comes at a significant cost to the environment.
AI has become yet another contributor to the Earth’s climate change. You may be wondering how having AI write your essay could have negative implications on the environment, in order to answer this question we need to understand how AI works. According to the University of Illinois Chicago, AI is defined as a “simulated human intelligence through the use of algorithms, data, and computational power”. This means that every time you type a question in Chat GPT or any other AI source, in order to get a response, there is a series of algorithms that require a significant amount of electricity. Similar to Bitcoin, AI requires data centers. Imagine a Target with its rows and rows of isles, but now imagine instead of chips and candy the shelves are filled with computer hardware that controls the storage, processing, and transmission of AI. These data centers require a significant amount of electricity, according to AP News, “One data center uses the same amount of electricity that is required to power 400,000 electric vehicles”. As of Dec. 2024, there are 10,978 AI data centers across the world according to Brightlio. Not only do the computers require electricity to function, but electricity is required to ensure none of the technology overheats. You’ve likely noticed your computer becoming warm when using demanding applications or tasks that require a lot of storage. Now picture that but on an extremely large scale.
In order to cool down these computers, air conditioning is required. Air conditioning not only requires a significant amount of electricity but it also requires water. According to the Washington Post, for every 100-word response AI gives you, 519 milliliters of water is used, which is a little more than one bottle of water. Once again, I invite you to imagine this on a significantly larger scale. The Washington Post reports that if 16 million people ask AI one question weekly for a whole year, this “requires 435,235,476 liters, equal to the water consumed by all Rhode Island households for 1.5 days”.
As a result of the exponential growth of AI, former President Joe Biden signed an executive order investing in the expansion of AI while being environmentally sustainable. When signing, Biden said, “We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water” (PBS). Moments after being named the 47th president, however, Donald Trump rescinded Biden’s order and announced to the world that the United States would be investing $500 billion in AI. It became clear that “Any of those Biden-era actions must be suspended if they don’t fit Trump’s new directive that AI should ‘promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security’” (AP News). This $500 billion will go toward the further development of AI and will go to more data centers. Tarun Chhabra, deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for technology and national security, told PBS, “The volumes of computing power and electricity needed to train and operate frontier models are increasing rapidly and set to surge even more”. While it may be important for the United States to remain dominant in the artificial intelligence field, there are serious environmental concerns to consider. As these surges in electricity usage increase, so will the demand for water. This will increase the risk of the planet greatly. According to the Harvard Business Review, the continued usage and expansion will “worsen prolonged droughts in water-stressed regions like Arizona and Chile.”
While AI can be a helpful tool in and out of the classroom, it is extremely important that you understand the repercussions of every search you make. Though it may be slightly more time-consuming since you may have to skim articles in order to find your answer, a simple Google search may suffice. Though some Google Searches do contain assisted AI, this is a feature that can be easily turned off in settings. According to AP News, asking AI a question uses ten times as much electricity than a regular Google search. Google also has its own assortment of data centers, but as we learned above, the more electricity a device uses, the hotter it gets, requiring more air conditioning and, therefore, more water.
Though many of you may open ChatGPT to ask it a quick question, I urge you to consider the repercussions, no matter how significant your question may be. I encourage you to take the extra moment and use a traditional Google search and try to limit your usage as much as possible!
Want to learn more about AI’s environmental effects? Visit:
AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.
The Real Environmental Impact of AI | Earth.Org
Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A bottle of water per email: the hidden environmental costs of using AI chatbots
