Everyone today probably knows about artificial intelligence, also known as A.I., A.I. has become very accessible, and with this, many people use it. Although A.I. is an easy way to do everyday tasks, this isn’t such a kind choice for our planet.
To use artificial intelligence, a large amount of electricity is demanded, and with A.I. growing and constantly improving, this is even more electricity needed. In fact, requesting A.I. to do a task consumes “10 times the electricity is takes for a Google search”, according to the International Energy Agency.
Because A.I. is constantly improving, A.I. is threatening to take place of environmentally safer choices, for example, if A.I. was to lead to self-driving cars, more people would choose to take this car over to bike or walk. This isn’t good for our planet because cars tend to run off fossil fuels.
While on the topic of fossil fuels, it’s important to know that this energy used for A.I. can come from fossil fuels too. Burning these fossil fuels leads to greenhouse gases being produced, which leads to the globe warming up. Global warming is unfortunate for the Earth’s wildlife. When ice and/or snow gets warm, it melts. This is not a good thing for the parts of our Earth that are meant to be cold. This ice being melted won’t only impact the arctic animals, but us humans. When ice melts it becomes a liquid, water. If all this ice were to melt it would cause a horrific flood that all of Earth would have to learn to survive with.
Fossil fuels aren’t the only concern, the other types of waste created can be just as dangerous. A.I. deployments take place in data centers, and these centers produce electronic waste. This waste is very hazardous, containing substances like lead and mercury. These substances impact the air that we breathe. Unfortunately our air isn’t our only necessity that is being affected by A.I.’s needs. Our water is being affected too. Freshwater is used to cool down the data centers. These data centers have a large demand, meaning they need large amounts of water.
Although A.I. needs water, every living organism needs water too. Freshwater takes up only about 3% of our world, meaning it is in high demand. With this, data centers are taking away water that plenty of organisms could be using to survive. An adult’s human body is about 60% water, to put emphasis on how much we need this water.
The effects of A.I. are not just environmental. A.I. is starting to take over jobs. some jobs being customer service or data entry clerks. This isn’t just taking place of repetitive jobs, but creative jobs too. Artists and photographers for example, people are not paying these people to do their jobs, but instead asking A.I. to do these tasks. Like if a customer wanted a painting or a picture of their pet, these customers might go to a generative website, instead of talented humans that need money to comfortably live.
No matter how helpful artificial intelligence may seem, the negative impact it has on not just humans, but on the world will never be worth that 100% grade you want to get. Use your brain on your homework, not an artificial brain that is quickly destroying our world.
