When a question is typed into Google, the first thing to appear on the screen is the answer provided by Google AI Overview. Artificial Intelligence is applied automatically, without users actively selecting it. 

Environmental Club President and senior Juliet Nguyen found the Google AI Overview to be an example of how prevalent AI use has become in recent years. It is increasingly integrated into everyday life where it can be found in smartphones, computers, search engines, apps and much more. According to a report by Harvard, Common Sense Media and Hopelab, about 51% of teens have reported using generative AI, such as ChatGPT, at some point.

But as AI becomes more common, Nguyen said they rarely think twice about the AI they come into contact with. Whether it’s ChatGPT or the AI overview Google automatically provides, she said consumers do not consider how AI engines are powered. According to Nguyen, this is a key reason why people remain unaware of AI’s impact on the climate.

“A lot of people, when they use AI, think it comes from nowhere, that it’s this magic thing that appears,” Nguyen said. 

According to her, the process of creating AI is riddled with environmentally damaging actions. It is made with natural resources such as cobalt and lithium, the mining of which causes pollution and environmental damage. In addition, AI centers use exorbitant amounts of freshwater in order to cool the hardware powering AI systems. In 2022, Google used 5.2 billion gallons of water to cool its data centers, and the numbers are expected to rise with the continued use and development of AI.

Furthermore, the enormous amounts of electricity required to train, deploy and fine-tune the AI models for millions of people to use draws an incredible amount of energy. Each time an AI model, like ChatGPT, is asked to do something, the computing hardware housing the model consumes more energy and water. 

“I don’t think people understand,” Nguyen said. “They don’t see how much resources we’re putting into it that honestly aren’t super regulated right now.”

To make matters worse, the resources poured into AI are largely uncontrolled by any federal guidelines since AI technology is still relatively new. As of now, there have been no bills passed to tackle the environmental impact of AI, however, Senator Edward Markey introduced the Artificial Intelligence Environmental Impacts Act of 2024 to the Senate on Feb. 1, 2024. Though not much has occurred in relation to this bill, if passed, it would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to carry out an investigation on the environmental impacts of AI. Sen. Markey’s AI Act may be the first step toward understanding and lessening AI’s negative environmental impact.

“They need to put more regulations on what you can do,” Nguyen said, “The state it’s in right now, it’s kind of a wild west.”

However, she said gaining insight into AI’s relationship with the environment would do more than bring attention to the harms, it would also reveal the ways in which AI could combat climate change, such as enhancing energy efficiency and accelerating clean energy innovation.

“AI can be used for good. When it comes to the climate crisis, there are companies that are using it to optimize how they use green energy,” Nguyen said.

According to an article from MIT News, these potential benefits cannot be fully realized unless the harmful effects are mitigated first. Nguyen said she worries about how the issue of the climate crisis will be handled in the near future, especially since legislation is a big part of fighting the climate crisis.

“I don’t think that the climate crisis should be political. I hate that it’s innately political,” Nguyen said. “We all live on Earth and we only get one.” 

However, Nguyen said greed and the current clamber to develop the best AI possible causes those with power and money to continue putting the climate crisis on the back burner, despite the ticking climate clock.

“Corporations keep pushing it off because their priority isn’t the earth. They could care less as long as they have money,” Nguyen said. “I wish people could [have empathy] and not prioritize profit.”

Despite feeling frustrated by inaction, Nguyen said the first step to change is awareness.

“A big part of it is understanding where [AI] is coming from, and it’s also having the empathy to realize this is affecting other people,” she said.

Although it may feel as if one individual cannot do much in the grand scheme of things, Nguyen said taking actions such as cutting back on AI usage is one way to foster change, not only for the environment but also for humanity.

“When people use [AI] for daily tasks that they don’t need to be [used] for, it takes away the value of creativity,” Nguyen said. “It ruins being a human when you’re so reliant on a robot to tell you how to think.”

While Nguyen recognizes that AI has its place in automating certain jobs, using it to replace human creativity and effort undermines its potential benefits while increasing environmental harm.

“I hope that people reduce their use of AI, even if it’s for their own sake,” Nguyen said. “It’s important to have empathy, work with your neighbors and do things that will help make a change, even if it’s in a small way.”