
New report highlights the environmental benefits and costs of generative AI
Author Kathy Nickels
Date 23 May 2024
Generative AI technology is hyped for its promise in contributing to sustainability and environmental health – but what are the real costs of manufacturing, training and using these technologies on the environment?
A new report Generative AI Technologies Applied to Ecosystems and the Natural Environment, released today from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society provides a scoping review of the literature on the ways that novel generative AI tools are being applied to living things and other elements of ecosystems and the natural environment.
Authored by ADM+S Chief Investigator Professor Deborah Lupton and former ADM+S postdoctoral fellow Dr Ella Butler from the University of New South Wales, this report details the deployment of generative AI in sustainability projects and biodiversity conservation as well as how this use creates environmental impacts such as increased carbon emissions, energy use and water consumption.
Professor Lupton and Dr Butler suggest that while there are many potential benefits, the vested interests underlying major commercial initiatives to apply generative AI to ecosystems should be closely examined.
“As these generative AI and LLM tools continue to develop, detailed examination of the assumptions underpinning their design and applications when used in relation to ecosystems is crucial that we examine to limit these human tendencies to exploitative, extractivist, and potentially deeply harmful approaches to other species and the natural world,” said Dr Butler.
The report outlines various uses of generative AI aimed towards animals, plants, biodiversity, conservation and climate change. It concludes with some considerations of the impacts on the natural environment of these tools and the need for ethical consideration of how they are deployed.
As with all AI tools,social, geographical and political context is everything when considering the potential benefits and harms of generative AI used for ecological purposes. Professor Lupton emphasised that, “unless these situated experiences and differences are acknowledged in future research, the possibilities, risks, accessibility and impacts of generative AI when applied to ecosystems and the natural environment will not be fully recognised or addressed.”