Opinion Dec.

Is Society Left Divided by the Rising Use of AI?

Nevaeh Hurless

Imagine just having finally fallen into a deep sleep, when all of a sudden you hear an agitating buzzing noise again. You rise out of your sleep, struggling to take a deep breath, and pull out your noise-cancelling headphones, trying desperately just to get a much-needed rest. Unfortunately, this situation is a frequent, if not daily occurrence for neighborhoods near data centers. These data centers mainly emit extreme air and noise pollution, which isn’t the best living conditions for people nearby. Over the past couple of years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has become extremely prevalent globally, but specifically among a younger demographic. Many students who use AI frequently are unaware of any negative impacts it may have overall. The topic itself is exceedingly taboo due to the fact that a whopping 78% of organizations globally invest in, and use AI. But what are the effects of AI? 

“There is still much we don’t know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning,” states Golestan Radwan, Chief Officer of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The main thing about AI is it needs an ungodly amount of electricity and water to work. As a result, these data centers are estimated to produce 2.5 million tons of electronic waste annually by 2030. This e-waste tends to be very hazardous; it contains harmful chemicals like mercury and lead. If not disposed of correctly, this can be extremely harmful to the ecosystems around them, polluting the water and soil.

Since AI needs large quantities of electricity to update the different hardware data centers use, they need something to cool down the electrical components, which would lie in the hands of none other than water. Unfortunately, these data centers tend to take their water from places that are particularly scarce, and AI  requires approximately 720 billion gallons of water per year. That’s enough water to supply 18.5 million households, which is insane considering currently 25% of the world’s population does not have access to clean water—that's 2 billion people! 

Besides all of that, it majorly contributes to global warming. To actually get all of that electricity, you’ll have to release a lot of C02 in the process.  As we all know, major amounts of greenhouse gases don’t get along very well with the atmosphere. Global warming itself branches out into a million different detestable aspects, so to think AI could be a contributing factor to that doesn’t exactly melt my heart.

Meanwhile, many students use and rely on AI, even if it’s subconscious. Students often use generative AIs for writing prompts, answers to equations, proofreading, and even life advice. This can boost productivity; however, the fact it’s so easy to access and has instant solutions leads to cognitive offloading. Cognitive offloading is basically using some external force to minimize the mental effort needed for a task. This is very dangerous because the more you use AI in this manner, the more dependent you become, which can leave memory and basic problem-solving skills in the hands of a chatbot. Using this regresses one's ability to actually think over the problem at hand. Cognitive offloading can be good in some scenarios, like helping relieve stress or freeing mental space for more difficult tasks, but it’s mainly the overconsumption that will always be a risk.

While AI is continuing to grow in its intelligence and attentiveness, it’s still very unreliable and even presents some bias or stereotypes to the users. Trusting this as a credible source will lead to easily believing inaccurate information, as well as lowering skepticism, and your ability to spot false information.

In conclusion, AI has many different uses, most of which have negative consequences environmentally, economically, or psychologically. AI can be useful if used correctly, and in moderation. But most people either won’t be able to understand this, or just won’t do it. The way I see it, even if it can benefit us, should we risk it when we could try finding better and more sustainable solutions to these problems? AI can be infinitely more intelligent than society, but it cannot replicate the same compassion, empathy, and understanding that we have between ourselves.