The Top 5 Things Environmentalists Should Consider with AI

What are the top 5 things to consider with AI in environmental work? This was the topic up for discussion in the latest episode of EnvCast, hosted by the Society for the Environment (SocEnv).  

Astrid Wynne, Techbuyer’s Head of Sustainability, AI and Automation, took part in the discussion alongside Dominic Walkling from Nature Positive, a sustainability consultancy and member of the RSK Group. In the episode, they explore exactly what AI is, as well as its digital impact, carbon emissions and environmental cost, hardware considerations, ethics of use and advice for environmental practitioners.  

The full episode is available for vieiwng here.  

Or if podcasts are more your style, you can listen in on the discussion here.  

Key Questions:  

What is the Environmental Cost of AI?  

It's no secret that AI is a power-hungry tool, nor that its environmental impact is expected to grow over the coming years. However, there are two general misconceptions with AI that need to be addressed, firstly that we are doomed, and secondly that we are heading for a utopia because of AI. But, at the end of the day, AI is a tool to help improve our lives and our work where we choose to use it.  

Uncovering the actual environmental cost of AI can be tricky, however, in 2022 it was estimated that data centres were contributing 460tw to our global energy consumption – if it was a country it would be the 11th most energy intensive in the world. AI is again estimated to make up 1/5 of a data centre’s energy consumption, making it a large contributor to a growing data centre footprint.  

What Ethical Process does AI Pose?  

In terms of ethics, we have a lot decide what is right and wrong when it comes to AI. For example, is it right to use AI for every search query given that a ChatGPT query is 5-10 times more carbon intensive than a search engine? What uses of AI are worth the environmental cost?  

However, also considering ethics around job roles and workload is also important. Is it fair to take tasks that could be set as training opportunities away from entry level positions? Should we be declaring the use of AI in the products that we sell? How aware of data security are we when inputting data into an AI model? With regulations (either within a business or in government) we can begin to build fair usage into AI.  

What should environmental professionals consider before adopting AI? 

When considering AI usage within a business, companies must look at how they want to move this forward by addressing all of the questions laid out above.  

An AI working group can be intrinsic to moving this forward to protect business interests and develop a fair and efficient use of the tool.  

Catch up on the full podcast episode here to hear what both Astrid and Dominic had to say in full.