AI, compute & our (blue) planet
The stress on our planet is increasing exponentially as we continue to adopt AI
All the worries about Singularity and AGI pale in comparison to the current strains on our beautiful home
Earth is sick and getting sicker - and awareness is Step One on the path to healing
I walk the dog almost every day through those 👆🏼 neighborhood ‘woods’ to a creek and back. Sometimes there are deer, most times, birds. Always the greenery of the northwest. I am so very fortunate to be able to experience the sights, smells and sounds of a green watershed, and my soul aches - more and more - for some of the things I know about the toll that AI is taking on our amazing earth home.
A few shocking numbers:
Google’s data center in The Dalles, OR currently uses 25% of the city’s water (source)
Five to 10 prompts into a generative AI model (like ChatGPT) uses the equivalent of a bottle of water (source)
Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to serve all the new data centers planned and under construction (source)
Texas, where electricity shortages are already routine on hot summer days, faces the same dilemma (ibid.)
The amount of computing resources used to train the largest AI models has been doubling roughly every 6 months for more than the past decade (source)
By 2040, the energy required for computing will exceed the estimated world’s energy production, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) (source)
As we build our AI Literacy, the environment is not a passive participant in this new tech transformation. Water and electricity are critical to the developing infrastructure demands - especially those of (generative) AI being increasingly built into every application and SaaS product we use.
What can we do? First, be aware. And use your prompts carefully. Play, but play intelligently.
Importantly, don’t give away your rights to protect your data, pay attention to terms and conditions. And, most importantly,
Vote.
We must be active participants in shaping policies at the local level, as well as state and national levels, in order to hold the technology industry accountable to the planet. Increasingly, good citizenry is good digital citizenry. And good digital citizenry is essential to the future of our entire world. Literally.
Resources from AIGG on your AI Journey of Understanding and Literacy
Need training or specific support in building AI Literacy? We’re a little different. We’re not approaching AI from a tech perspective, though we have techies on staff. We’re approaching it from a safe, ethical, and responsible use perspective because we’ve been through technology and business transformations before. Whether you’re a government agency, school, district, or business looking to add AI to your tech toolkit, we can guide the way in a responsible manner. AiGg is here to support you in navigating ethics, governance, and strategy setting.
We have attorneys, anthropologists, data scientists, and business leaders to support you as you develop your Strategic AI Use Statements, which can guide your organization’s use of the tools available to you. We also offer bespoke educational workshops to help you explore and build your playbooks, guidelines, and guardrails as your adoption (and potential risk management) options grow.
Connect with us for more information, to get your free AI Tools Adoption Checklist, Legal and Operational Issues List, HR Handbook policy, or to schedule a workshop to learn more about how to make AI work safely for you. We are here for you.
Reach out for more information and to begin the journey towards making AI work safely and advantageously for your organization. Let’s invite AI in on our own terms. For the sake of the planet.
