AI's Impact on the Environment

In recent years, artificial intelligence has been fully adopted into society and is used for a multitude of reasons. For example, chatbots like ChatGPT are extremely popular due to their user-friendly and convenient nature. Yet, most people are not aware of the fact that extreme use of artificial intelligence has led to a substantial environmental impact because of its contribution to carbon emissions and amassed water consumption. 

In order for any of OpenAI’s chatbots to function properly, they must be trained. The power required to train any of these chatbots requires a large amount of electricity, which naturally leads to increased carbon emissions and pressure on electric grids (Zewe). To put the amount of energy demand into perspective, a single AI model can “consume thousands of megawatt hours of electricity and emit hundreds of tons of carbon” (Ren and Wiermen). Since the use of AI is consistently expanding and rampantly implementing itself into everyday human life, the level of carbon emissions will only increase. In fact, by 2026, the global energy demand for AI is set to surpass the “annual electricity consumption of a small country like Belgium” (Ren and Wiermen). 

The use of AI not only has a high demand for energy, but it also requires water to cool down the hardware in data centers. Many large tech corporations have increased their use of water to cool these data centers, which is raising many ethical concerns. AI data centers can use up to “9 liters of water per kWh of energy” to dissipate heat, which contributes to the projected water usage of “6.6 billion m³ by 2027” (Gordon). These frightening statistics should be at the top of the list of environmental concerns, especially when you consider the fact that fresh water is one of the most scarce yet indispensable resources on the planet. 

Even though artificial intelligence technology is extremely useful, the energy and water demand inevitably creates dangers such as increased carbon emissions and the depletion of water resources. These risks will only continue to increase with AI use, harming the already-vulnerable environment. 

Works Cited

Gordon, Cindy. “AI Is Accelerating the Loss of Our Scarcest Natural Resource: Water.” Forbes, 25 Feb. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/cindygordon/2024/02/25/ai-is-accelerating-the-loss-of-our-scarcest-natural-resource-water/.

Ren, Shaolei, and Adam Wierman. “The Uneven Distribution of AI’s Environmental Impacts.” Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Publishing, 15 July 2024, hbr.org/2024/07/the-uneven-distribution-of-ais-environmental-impacts.

Zewe, Adam. “Explained: Generative AI’s Environmental Impact.” MIT News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 17 Jan. 2025, news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117.