Earth's Climate Is Being Hurt By AI in Non-Obvious Ways
Experts emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing the potential negative consequences of AI on our climate and environmental efforts. By gaining a deeper understanding of these impacts, we can better prepare and take action to mitigate any harmful effects. It is crucial to confront these challenges proactively to ensure a sustainable future for our planet. With proper knowledge and awareness, we can work towards using AI in ways that benefit the environment rather than harm it. Taking steps to address these issues now will be key in shaping a more positive relationship between AI technology and climate change mitigation.
The Impact of AI on Climate Change
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AI Fabricated Images and Climate Change
"Something’s fishy,” declared a March newsletter from the rightwing, fossil-fuel-funded think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation. The caption looms under an imposing image of a stranded whale on a beach, with three huge offshore wind turbines in the background.
Something truly was fishy about that image. It’s not because offshore wind causes whale deaths, a groundless conspiracy pushed by fossil fuel interests that the image attempts to bolster. It’s because, as Gizmodo writer Molly Taft reported, the photo was fabricated using artificial intelligence. Along with eerily pixelated sand, oddly curved beach debris, and mistakenly fused together wind turbine blades, the picture also retains a tell-tale rainbow watermark from the artificially intelligent image generator DALL-E.
DALL-E is one of countless AI models that have risen to otherworldly levels of popularity in the last few years. But as hundreds of millions of users marvel at AI’s ability to produce novel images and believable text, a wave of hype has concealed how AI could be hindering our ability to make progress on climate change.
The Environmental Impact of Large AI Models
Advocates argue that these impacts—which include vast carbon emissions associated with the electricity needed to run the models, a pervasive use of AI in the oil and gas industry to boost fossil fuel extraction, and a worrying uptick in the output of misinformation—are flying under the radar. While many prominent researchers and investors have stoked fears around AI’s “godlike” technological force or potential to end civilization, a slew of real-world consequences aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
Many of these harms extend far beyond climate issues, including algorithmic racism, copyright infringement, and exploitative working conditions for data workers who help develop AI models. “We see technology as an inevitability and don’t think about shaping it with societal impacts in mind,” David Rolnick, a computer science professor at McGill University and a co-founder of the nonprofit Climate Change AI, told Grist.
Large AI Models and Carbon Emissions
At its core, AI is essentially “a marketing term,” the Federal Trade Commission stated back in February. There is no absolute definition for what an AI technology is. But usually, as Amba Kak, the executive director of the AI Now Institute, describes, AI refers to algorithms that process large amounts of data to perform tasks like generating text or images, making predictions, or calculating scores and rankings.
That higher computational capacity means large AI models gobble up large quantities of computing power in its development and use. Take ChatGPT, for instance, the OpenAI chatbot that has gone viral for producing convincing, humanlike text. Researchers estimated that the training of ChatGPT-3, the predecessor to this year’s GPT-4, emitted 552 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent—equal to more than three round-trip flights between San Francisco and New York. Total emissions likely are much higher, since that number only accounts for training ChatGPT-3 one time through.
AI and Climate Misinformation Online
AI could also fundamentally shift the way we consume—and trust — information online. The U.K. nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate tested Google’s Bard chatbot and found it capable of producing harmful and false narratives around topics like COVID-19, racism, and climate change. For instance, Bard told one user, “There is nothing we can do to stop climate change, so there is no point in worrying about it.”
The ability of chatbots to spout misinformation is baked into their design, according to Rolnick. “Large language models are designed to create text that looks good rather than being actually true,” he said.
Regulation of AI's Impact on Climate Change
When it comes to how AI can be used, it’s “the Wild West,” as Corsi puts it. The lack of regulation is particularly alarming when you consider the scale at which AI is deployed, he added. Facebook, which uses AI to recommend posts and products, boasts nearly three billion users.
In response, advocacy groups such as Public Citizen and the AI Now Institute have called for the tech companies responsible for these AI products to be held accountable for AI’s harms. Advocates and AI researchers also call for greater transparency and reporting requirements on the design, data use, energy usage, and emissions footprint of AI models.