Unseen Consequences: How AI contributes to Environmental Decline

Artificial Intelligence has evidently been a part of human society for quite some time now. Slithering its way, almost unnoticed, into electronics like Smart Phones, Smart TVs and Voice Assistants like Siri or Alexa. As humans get more and more comfortable with the use of AI, by being able to perform an action simply through words, its impact is most often overlooked. AI is not just a tool to make us more comfortable, it consists of hardware components such as processors, AI accelerators, and specialized memory units. Another significant part of Artificial Intelligence are AI chips, which also consist of multiple components. These include graphics processing units, which perform mathematical calculations, field-programmable gate arrays, a circuit which can be reprogrammed many times, and application-specific integrated circuits. 

Even though AI makes our lives more comfortable, the process of manufacturing the needed materials can cause negative effects on the environment. The environment is not the only part affected, as the earth’s population relies on natural resources such as water and oxygen to be able to live long and comfortably. Mainly, the production of AI hardware causes soil erosion, which gradually dries out the soil due to the overuse of water, and environmental pollution.

These effects are mostly evident in places where the materials are mined and produced. The world’s top AI chip producing company currently, NVIDIA, is the first choice when it comes to suppliers. NVIDIA, though based in Santa Clara, California, mostly farms their products in the Asia Pacific region. In 2022, the company’s greenhouse gas emissions consisted of 73,017 metric tons of CO2. In comparison, the electricity consumption of 0.65 average households for a year is equal to one ton of CO2 emission, according to antithesisgroup.com. 

Most people might assume that a Google search and a ChatGPT search amount to the same emission, unfortunately that assumption is false. The difference between the two search engines is that a ChatGPT search requires about 10 times as much electricity than a Google search, in order to ensure the accuracy of the response. This, of course, is also immensely harmful to the environment due to the fact that energy production is in great demand. The more electricity the population requires, the more energy needs to be produced. Such productions cause air, water  and thermal pollution, along with increasing climate change. 

Due to the tremendous demand of materials to further Artificial Intelligence, the environment is continuously impacted. It seems as if AI is just a fun tool to make our lives easier, but unfortunately, it has quite the opposite effect. Due to the further eradication of natural resources, and destruction of nature itself, advancements in AI could turn out to be quite costly for planet earth and its inhabitants.