AI and Sustainability- Will AI do more harm or more good in the world?
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
Artificial Intelligence is constantly evolving and transforming various industries, from healthcare to finance. AI’s potential for sustainability is increasingly being explored for the future. Although AI seems temporarily useful for information, such as schoolwork, it also has major environmental and psychological setbacks.
In my opinion, artificial intelligence is extremely helpful to society, as I have personally used it to assist my revision in certain school subjects. However, as a young individual, research highlights that AI has significant negative effects on my generation. For starters, people are becoming too reliant on technology, preventing them from thinking for themselves and decreasing their intellect. Additionally, young adults may develop an emotional dependence on AI, with studies showing that 40% of them use chatbots to cure their loneliness. Unfortunately, this deteriorates mental health, increasing cases of anxiety and depression.
Furthermore, AI has a severe impact on the environment, affecting the planet in many ways. Data centers that house AI generate increasing amounts of technological waste each year due to its growing demand. They are large consumers of water and rely on critical materials and rare elements to function. This promotes unsustainability, as AI consumes excessive amounts of energy. For example, OpenAI's GPT-3 model requires 1,287 MWh, emitting 550 metric tons of CO2, which contributes to global warming. Additionally, AI drains device lifespans, and since many of these devices cannot be recycled, they end up in landfills, further polluting the planet.
Artificial Intelligence also promotes economic instability, with around 14% of workers already displaced from their jobs. AI is highly efficient and maximizes business revenues since it does not require a salary. However, it is still unsustainable because it negatively impacts low-income workers, increasing unemployment and poverty, which leads to economic instability.
While some argue that AI can do more good by predicting natural disasters and finding effective solutions. I stand by my opinion because, before AI, natural disasters could already be monitored using sustainable technology, such as satellites, which track greenhouse gas concentrations. Additionally, meteorologists play a crucial role in handling these predictions without the need for AI.
In conclusion, I believe AI has significant negative repercussions on the world. It emits greenhouse gases, reduces intellect, worsens mental health in younger generations, and destabilizes the economy. Although AI is efficient, it is not a reliable or sustainable component of society at this time.
Comments (12)
As I reflect on the impact of AI, I'm convinced that its benefits far outweigh its drawbacks. Yes, AI poses challenges, but its potential to transform our lives is undeniable.
Imagine a world where AI-powered diagnosis saves lives, where personalized learning helps students thrive, and where sustainable practices protect our planet. This is the future AI can help us build.
Of course, we must acknowledge the risks and work to mitigate them. But let's not lose sight of the incredible good AI can do. With responsible development and regulation, I believe AI can be a powerful force for good, creating a brighter future for all of us.
I disagree because AI can make people very unoriginal, and lazy. Not only that it could replace so many peoples jobs its not fair to lay off thousands of people because AI is replacing them. The last and most clear one is that AI harms the enviorment. If we really think its also harmful to students as they could just use AI to do their work and when its time for a test they won't know what to do.
Terrific_cat, I appreciate your honest thoughts! I understand your concerns about AI, and I agree that we need to be careful. But I believe AI can be a helpful tool if we use it wisely. For example, AI can help doctors diagnose diseases more accurately, or assist students with their learning. Let's work together to make sure AI is used in ways that benefit everyone, and not just a few. We can also make sure that people who lose their jobs due to AI are retrained and supported. What do you think?
I second that, conscientious_ocean. Ai is very helpful, effecient and accommodating, but is NOT completely reliable and sustainable. Although Ai is constantly progressing and growing advantageous but then, at the same time, it also contributes to various concerns like climate change, cognition problems and economic instability - as you mentioned. As for climate change, a lot of natural resources are to run Ai and cool it down which proves to be very harmful for our environment. For cognition problems, young generations are affected by Ai the most, their social skills are deteriorating, their creativity is stiffled and independance on Ai has increased. For example, if a child is given a home assignment or something that is supposed to be done by them, they use Ai in it which makes it way easier. As for the third part - economic instability - I believe this is also very concerning, Ai is replacing jobs that are supposed to be done by human leading to unemployement , poverty and potential societel discord (more like a community conflict). All this is true but I can't deny the fact that Ai is NOT completely harmful. It provides aid in many ways, like problem solving, predicting natural disasters and many more! So, to conclude, these negative effects of Ai make it a bit unstable for now.
I think that AI harms the world because of the energy consumption,E- waste,job displacement,bias ans inequality,full dependence on AI, addiction, decreased human interaction, resource depletion, carbon footprint,economic insta, lack of transparency, system vulnerabilities and more to tell. This few factors will cross in my mind whenever, I thought about AI and it's impacts. I think that, these are the most markable impacts that will bring a great negative impact in the society. Importantly, it cause irreversible great to planet, which is unsolvable. At conclusion wanna end it with a wonderful quote,"AI IS A TOOL, NOT A GOAL ,WE NEED TO ENSURE THAT AI SERVES HUMANITY , AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND "...
It is my understanding that ai has mixed blessings because it works both ways, good and bad understanding it more will help solve this neverending debate.
Let's go over some advantages and disadvantages first let's start with a disadvantage: ai can manipulate people into getting them to believe that something is real although it isn't, some ai are easily detected and don't look close to real but there are some very advanced AI's like chatgpt or sora ai which can make close to perfect reflections of real life which are much harder to recognize without the use of advance devices.
We now move on to a advantage: it stops human error where ai uses algorithms and deep learning to calculate and perform tasks perfectly like robots for factories and other complicated missions without the risk of error .
Another advantage is that ai and robots don't need breaks and can survive under many circumstances.
Humanity needs to understand what we are doing and that if we don't use ai properly it may lead to everlasting effects that can cause our demise
It all depends on the type of subject, AI can help in subjects like improving education, making things more accessible, and improve the technological community. However it can negatively affect things such as art, creativity, and also to mention AI supports cheating.
I agree that AI has many negative consequences , especially for younger generations. People are becoming too dependent on technology , which affects their ability to think critically and solve the problems on their own. The mental health is also concerning , as AI interactions can never replace real human connections . On top of that , the environmental impact of AI is alarming , its high energy consumption and electronic waste only add up to global pollution. While some argue that AI can help in areas like disaster prediction , I think we should focus on more sustainable solutions that don't come with such heavy costs. AI might be useful in some ways , but its long term effects on society and the planet make it more harmful than beneficial.
I honestly think AI is like a ticking time bomb. Sure, it might seem useful now, like having a super-smart robot friend who can help with homework or give you answers in seconds, but it’s also a little like a monster under your bed that you can’t see. It’s taking over everything, and that’s scary! It’s like the more we use it, the more we let it control our lives. People are getting too lazy, thinking less for themselves, like AI is spoon-feeding them everything. It's like being stuck in a room full of sweets—you get all this instant gratification, but it rots your brain over time.
And let’s not forget about the environment. Using AI is like having a thousand lightbulbs on all the time, burning through electricity and materials, and soon we run out of the good stuff. The tech keeps making waste, and the earth just can’t keep up. I read that running an AI system can use as much energy as a small city! That’s a huge waste, like pouring water down the drain when there’s a drought. The more we depend on AI, the more the planet suffers.
On top of that, AI is taking jobs from real people! Imagine being kicked out of your own house by a robot who doesn’t even need to sleep or eat. People need their jobs to live, and if AI takes them, it's like the world’s economy is built on quicksand—it’s going to crumble. Sure, AI can predict disasters, but that doesn’t fix the problem of people losing work or getting addicted to these bots for comfort.
If we keep going this way, I wonder: how much longer can we keep feeding this AI beast before it swallows everything?
Thought-provoking comment modest_wildcat - nicely written!
I strongly agree and too feel the same that A.I might seem very good at first but it's adverse effects are very vast.Like as previously discussed,AI can seem very useful in many aspects whether it be of workspace or personal usage.It can do tedious and time consuming tasks in the blink of an eye which usually requires humans to do in large time spans.Even though A.I is useful but it is more worse on the other hand.A.I increases our dependency on it and according to human tendency, Whenever we get spoon fed,We no longer involve our additional efforts. Also A.I is taking over humans whether we believe it or not in many sectors like it makes us very lazy and increases our dependency on it.Even in industrial sectors,as we know A.I excels in any aspects even better than humans that's why it has started taking jobs and many people are losing jobs because of it.This is because A.I needs nothing but just electricity to work continuously without the need to rest.
As talking about Power consumption, Ok further research I came to know that A.I base models like gpt 3 can consume upto 1600 MEGAWATTS of power and that is unbelievably high.It is equal to the approx power used by 160 average US houses annually.This huge power consumption also has many adverse effects on the environment as well because of the waste released.
To sum up,I feel that even after A.I being efficient, it shall not take the place of humans and it has more worse effects than good ones.Thats why the usage of A.I should be limited and should not be something to be totally depended upon...
In my opinion, AI is a mixed bag. While it may help us relieve eco-anxiety, predict natural disasters and solve economic instabilities, it's far too unsustainable for humans to reliably use. AI uses an insane amount of power, but that isn't just the only issue. The cooling in AI servers needs tons upon tons of water and all this water is taken from nearby regions. If a drought happens, then the populace will be left without water as they can't outbuy the giant companies. AI also raises ethical issues about jobs, people become displaced, AI is more efficient but you also lose that human touch. But AI isn't even perfect. It has various issues, its memory is one of them. It cannot remember data for long periods of time, so, in any job that requires patience or focus, AI may completely ruin it and potentially take away lives if it's a medical profession. Mentally, people have begun using AI chatbots as virtual friends, which, just fuels depression, drug addictions and suicide rates. Additionally, AI is based off of human data which isn't perfect, AI might produce wrong info to women or marginalized groups because the all of the data available of the web comes from humans and humans can be wrong. So, in short, while AI can be a net good, humanity hasn't found the necessary means to properly wield it, what we're wielding is a broken sword that has corrosive material that's spewing all over, poisoning everything it touches. If AI advances, then maybe it could be sustainable, but as of now, humanity's creation cannot be sustained by its creator.
I think the development of AI is a race against time—can we accomplish its complete development and help the climate cause before emissions significantly affect us? These effects have, no doubt, stolen the spotlight, whether it be the Los Angeles wildfires, earthquakes in Turkey, or the Dubai floods. Newton's third law of motion applies to the situation we are creating, where deforestation with the development of AI will provoke nature to give us a reality check, as every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
AI can think beyond our minds, which could help in climate change mitigation and cancer detection. But the real problem is: when will it become capable of solving specific issues? How much of a carbon footprint must we expect before it reverses climate change? Will the emissions permanently affect our planet?
With an increasing population, AI can significantly affect the workforce. In India, a major source of income is taxi driving, from food delivery to tourist transport. I cannot imagine the number of people who will be affected if automation takes over in the fields of labor, driving, and mining.
I must also think about our use of AI. I understand that it may help us with more precise revisions, but we should consider our planet, which we call 'mother'. How can we not feel ashamed when prompting AI for things we could do with a little more effort? And don't forget, AI is killing the creative self within children.
The fact that some tech giants, like Musk, have warned of the potentially dire consequences of fully developed AI is concerning, to say the least.
I fully accept the positive impacts of AI, as it is helping many people in greater ways. However, I also recognize that AI has its drawbacks.
In a future where AI in healthcare saves countless lives, provides personalized education to help students reach new heights, and enables AI to assists scientists in detecting upcoming viruses and disasters, it has the potential to protect our planet in numerous ways. Achieving sustainability is certainly possible.
It can be difficult for people to fully understand the potential impacts of AI. However, it is crucial that people use AI responsibly and in the proper manner. Importantly, AI is a powerful tool that can elevate humans to the next level in future generations. If the creators of AI can make changes to reduce its negative impacts, it could become the greatest technological platform the world has ever seen.
Artificial intelligence is inherently neither good nor bad; it depends on the purpose we, as the human race, choose. Sustainability concerns are in our hands: do we want to sacrifice our one and only home for the benefit of everyone through countless profits and efficiency, or shall we use this to reverse climate change? No doubt, it uses a lot of electricity, but companies should invest profits from these databases in renewable energy. Governments should also consider subsidizing companies trying to shift from traditional, exhaustible resources. One positive commitment, companies like Google have pledged to tranfrom to those blue magical grids: solar panels.
One threat to our commitment to making this technology planet-oriented is the possible "tech cold war" between China and America. The urge to prove the other inferior could break developmental limits. As observed in the Space Race, both countries were willing to spend millions of dollars. This time, the concern is not funds, but our planet. It is up to the judgment of countries to decide whether to accept the developments of rivals for the sake of Earth or seek revenge by emitting exponentially more carbon emissions.
The cloud of superiority stands in the way, of making our beloved companion usable. Fields like agriculture, with food security concerns, or cyber security could be benefitted. The question is ethical: the long term Earth or temporary satisfaction?
I agree with you that AI has its negative sides, but you may also want to consider these few points of mine without AI it will be hard for children to do their home work or revision in their school subjects. AI is very helpful to the society, people use AI to search for jobs online and when they get one, they can carry out their responsibilities effectively from the comfort of their homes. AI can solve problem like eco-anxiety by proffering solutions to climate issues. As a pupil, AI has made learning very easy for me, it assist me with my homework. It helps in refining my thoughts and ideas in composition writing, it has also helped in making Mathematics easy for me to understand and solve.
To conclude, whatever we get from AI will be depended on how we choose to use it.