May 8, 2026

Hear from GHS Senior

Marleigh Seidel about this week of class!

About Marleigh

I’m Marleigh Seidel, and I am a senior at GHS in our AI class. Outside of this class, I am an active member of GHS Green Club, treasurer of my class, and captain of the varsity volleyball team. In my free time, I enjoy many hobbies such as reading, painting, and spending time outdoors. Next year I will be attending University of Rochester, where I plan to major in Mechanical Engineering. I am interested in expanding my knowledge about AI in the field of STEM, and understand the technology as an inevitable part of my future.

The past week in our AI class, learning was centered on a topic that is often overlooked in conversations regarding artificial intelligence, the price the planet pays to power AI. While AI is frequently discussed in terms of innovation and efficiency, our work shifted focus towards its environmental footprint, such as the immense water and energy demands required to sustain it. The central focus of our discussion was a tension between technological advancement and environmental responsibility, asking if AI can continue to expand without progressing its impact on already strained, finite natural resources.

A key concept we explored was the role of data centers, which are the physical infrastructure behind AI systems. Although this technology may feel abstract, it relies on massive facilities filled with servers that require continuous electricity to operate. While the energy demand is significant, what’s even more surprising is the scale of water being consumed. Data centers generate a lot of heat, and cooling systems, including evaporative cooling towers and liquid-based methods, depend on large quantities of water to prevent overheating. In some cases, a single AI prompt or question can contribute to measurable water usage. It is essential that users understand that a small digital action can turn into large environmental consequences.

We examined how these facts connect to geography and infrastructure. Data centers are often located in regions where energy access, land availability, and water resources make large-scale production feasible. However, this concentration fosters uneven local impacts. Smaller communities hosting these facilities may experience pressure on water supply and energy, raising questions about who benefits from AI versus who pays the price. We also looked into how cooling systems function in more technical detail. Methods such as chilled water loops and direct liquid cooling are attempts to manage the immense heat being generated. There is not yet a universal standard for measuring the total water and energy consumption of AI infrastructure, which makes its environmental impact difficult to fully assess. Another process we learned about was desalination as a response to water scarcity. Desalination is used widely in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE, offering a technological solution by converting saltwater into freshwater. However, it is energy intensive and produces brine, a harmful byproduct that can damage ecosystems. It also raises concerns about cost and accessibility.

Ultimately, this week has emphasized that AI is not just a digital tool, but a material system with consequences. Understanding the technology requires looking beyond its outputs and considering the infrastructure, and the water and energy consumption that sustains it. This shifts how we think about innovation, suggesting that progress cannot be measured only by speed or capability, but must also account for long-term sustainability and environmental impact. As artificial intelligence continues to advance, we need to consider who is affected by its resource demands, and how those costs are distributed across different communities. Rather than existing as something abstract, AI is grounded by physical environments that are strained, making its growth difficult to separate from the ecological limits.

Want to Keep Up to Date with Our Reading List?

See below for each week's readings and join the conversation!

Week 33 - This Week

Alexis Madrigal, “The Energy in Things”
Eve Warburton, “Nationalist enclaves: Industrialising the critical mineral boom in Indonesia”
Nisha Talagala, “Data as The New Oil Is Not Enough: Four Principles For Avoiding Data Fires”
Juana Summers, “Dirty nickel: The health costs of mining in Indonesia”
Lawrence Wright, “Lithium Dreams”
Greg Rosalsky, “Why the AI world is suddenly obsessed with a 160-year-old economics paradox”
Camilla Domonoske, “Their batteries hurt the environment, but EVs still beat gas cars. Here's why.”
Rithwik Kalale, “Lithium mining for EVs: how sustainable is it?”
Soumya Karlamangla, “The California Lake Billed as the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’”
Image, “This is a silicon wafer”

Week 32

1. Wiki, “Mother Nature”
2. Ken Silverstein, “America’s AI Boom Is Running Into An Unplanned Water Problem”
3. Elizabeth Kolbert, “The E.P.A. vs. the Environment”
4. Adam Zewe, “Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact”
5. Shaolei Ren, “The Uneven Distribution of AI’s Environmental Impacts”
6. Carmen Gonzalez, “Environmental Justice, Human Rights, and the Global South Environmental Justice, Human Rights, and the Global South”
7. Megan Mastrola, “How AI Can Help Combat Climate Change”

Week 31

Nathan Heller, “Is the Gig Economy Working?”
Matt Shumer, “Something Big is Happening”
Kashmir Hill, “Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.”
Jennifer Devries, “How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them.”
Rhitu Chatterjee, “Their teenage sons died by suicide. Now, they are sounding an alarm about AI chatbots”
Stuart Heritage, “‘I felt pure, unconditional love’: the people who marry their AI chatbots
Shannon Bond, “AI chatbots upended their lives. Now they're finding support from each other”
Johanna Costigan, “China's AI Boyfriend Business is Taking On a Life of Its Own”
Miles Klee, “This Spiral-Obsessed AI ‘Cult’ Spreads Mystical Delusions Through Chatbots”

Optional:

Andrew Clark, “The Ability of AI Therapy Bots to Set Limits With Distressed Adolescents: Simulation-Based Comparison Study”
Juliet Schor, “Dependence and precarity in the platform economy”

Week 30

Wiki, “Satoshi Nakamoto”
John Carreyrou, “My Quest to Solve Bitcoin’s Great Mystery”
Satoshi Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”
TechScope, “Meme Coin Mania and Mayhem: Navigating the Blind Spots”
CoinMemeCap, “Top Memes Tokens by Market Capitalization”
Florida State, “Ponzi Schemes”
Ganesh Sitaraman, “We Must Prepare for an AI Bubble Now”
Michał Klincewicz et al., “Slopaganda: The interaction between propaganda and generative AI”
Kyle Chayka, “The Team Behind a Pro-Iran, Lego-Themed Viral-Video Campaign”

Week 29

Week 28

Independent Reading Selections (second half)

Week 27

Independent Reading Selections (first half)

Weeks 25/26

Does AI Have a Soul? Ethical AI, Palantir, Anthropic, and the US Government

Berber Jin, “Meet the One Woman Anthropic Trusts to Teach AI Morals”
Image, “Should I Walk to the Car Wash?”
Matteo Wong, “Drink Whole Milk, Eat Red Meat, and Use ChatGPT”
Amrith Ramkumar, “Pentagon Used Anthropic’s Claude in Maduro Venezuela Raid”
Claude, “Claude’s Constitution”
Socrates, from Phaedrus on the soul
Various, Palantir Readings

1. Mona Khalil, “Palantir, Seemingly Everywhere All at Once”
2. Steven Hubbard, “ICE to Use ImmigrationOS by Palantir, a New AI System, to Track Immigrants’ Movements”
3. Alex Karp, “Letter to Shareholders February 2026”
4. Gideon Lewis-Kraus, “The Palantir Guide to Saving America’s Soul”

Week 23

How Does it Work? The Basics of AI Functionality

Janelle Shane, You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How AI Works and Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place chapters 1-4
Ex Machina (2014) - in class

Week 22

General Introduction to the Field’s Ethical Questions

Sarah Roberts, “Your AI is a Human”
Michael Schrage, “Philosophy Eats AI”
Molly Smith, “Can Generative AI Chatbots Emulate Human Connection? A Relationship Science Perspective”
Meghan O’Gieblyn, “Do We Have Minds of Our Own?”
Kyle Chayka, “That New Hit Song on Spotify? It Was Made by A.I.”
John Cassidy, “The Dangerous Paradox of A.I. Abundance”
Harvard, “How Close Are You to the Way ChatGPT Thinks?”
Robert Capps, “AI Might Take Your Job. Here are 22 New Ones It Could Give You”
Sam Kriss, “Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?”
Bill Wasik, “A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally.”
Cindy Shan, “Does new 'Cognify' tech allow prisoners to complete years of social rehabilitation in minutes?”

Optional:

Ajay Agrawal, “Genius on Demand”
Olivia Guest et al., “Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies”

Independent Reading Project Selections

Karen Hao, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Yuval Noah Harari, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Kashmir Hill, Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
Ethan Mollick, Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
Michael Pollan, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness
Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

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