The Environmental Inequity of AI

Building Local Power

AI technology and large language models are growing in popularity. Also growing is the technology's detrimental effect on the environment. Each query into ChatGPT, to use one example, requires billions of calculations. Multiply that by millions of users, and suddenly, tech companies need to greatly expand their computing power in the form of new, energy-draining data centers. Each of those centers requires staggering amounts of fresh water to keep its servers cool. By some estimates, just 10 ChatGPT queries are equivalent to evaporating a 16oz bottle of water. For context, the popularity of these queries has resulted in one of the major technology companies now having the same annual water consumption as PepsiCo.
Joining us on Building Local Power to discuss what this all means is UC Riverside professor Dr. Shaolei Ren. Continuing our series exploring how monopolies exploit structural racism to gain monopoly power, Ren not only outlines the environmental effects of AI but also explains how data center location decisions by Big Tech companies exacerbate environmental inequity. Almost all of the counties most affected by AI's climate harms are low-income communities and Black communities.
What can policymakers and the public do? Ren has ideas for that, too, as he pushes for what he calls "health-informed computing."
For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page:
https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-environmental-inequity-of-ai