“Every day, I complain, protest, and object, but it takes such vigilance and activism to keep legislators on their toes and government accountable to the people on environmental
issues.” – Hazel Johnson
Happy Earth Day to my fellow “human animals,” as Angela Davis would call us. On this holiday I decided to learn more about environmental protection since I’ve had several interesting conversations about AI technology. Admittedly I am a hater of Artificial intelligence for many different reasons, but this isn’t about being a morally superior individual compared to AI users. Through the hate, I found many great articles that explained the environmental impacts of AI and provided a much-needed refresher on the basics of water, electricity, and data. Understanding how AI negatively impacts the environment involves a willingness to shift our behavior and perspectives around our relationship with nature. The arguments in defense of AI disregard its e. i (environmental impact) since humans are considered destructive without application. Apathy is a strong factor in climate denialism and doomerism. Anti-intellectualism culture preys upon people’s skepticism towards ‘modern science.’ Scientists perceived outlook as experts produce reactionary attitudes on issues highlighting “global warming.” These skeptics possess a variety of reasons why global warming is not real or to an extent highly sensationalized. It cannot be overstated that the increased usage of AI (Artificial Intelligence) among all age groups is directly tied to our willingness to excuse and embrace anti-intellectualism.
Based on previous research I conducted anti-intellectualism was deemed most pervasive in the: business, political, and educational sectors of American life. This partly explains why we have seen an ‘uptick’ in AI usage across these sectors. Corporations and elected officials reap the political and economic benefits of such technological advancements while the consequences will eventually lead to disastrous outcomes for marginalized communities. Everything about ChatGPT is deemed harmless to the general public because it’s presented as a form of leisure. Many users of ChatGPT support its evolution as a tool of convenience to complete tasks at work, create workout plans, or send emails. For artists and other creatives, it’s easy to see why many would be annoyed or downright angry by the use of AI in these practices. We devalue and dispute human creations since the computer can do the same thing in half the time. AI is not a new concept and has been in the works since 2015, Interesting enough this stems from the occasional use of generative tools integrated into fact and grammar checkers. It wasn’t uncommon to use these shortcuts to find synonyms for basic words or to change the structure of a sentence. Students were aware that these tools sometimes added more errors than the ones it was prompted to fix. We were aware that these generators were under no obligation to give us accurate information. Tuition isn’t cheap so these were last-minute efforts to cover up procrastination or burnout. To my knowledge no one used these every day, they were convenient.
The more I want to praise its capabilities It’s hard to overlook its harm disguised as a groundbreaking advancement. It was an underwhelming tool until its utility expanded to keep consumers engaged, AI had to appeal to different audiences. Ahead of other topics we’ll be discussing keep in mind, “Highly educated adults are most likely to have used ChatGPT: 37% of those with a postgraduate or other advanced degree have done so, up 8 points since July 2023.” This fact from the Pew Research Center highlights the versatility of anti-intellectualism, experts are not exempt from participating in the same behavior as anti-intellectuals. As a collective this expansion of AI that we are trying to control starts with reconnecting with our environment and understanding our shared interests. Our reliance on AI reaches a new and concerning level with each update. I would have never guessed we would enter the technological era where people prefer to utilize AI chatbots like their therapist, teacher, or friend.This is the danger behind co-opting language from disabled activists to defend the “accessibility” of AI. The advancement of AI should be centered around making life more accessible but at the root to quote Stanford and Cornell University experts, “not all AI are equal.”
“When companies reduce hurdles to technological adoption, improve the marketing of products across the board, and build in affordances for those who are traditionally disadvantaged by one-size-fits-all technologies, they approach an equity of accessibility across all potential users.” – Not All AI are Equal: Exploring the Accessibility of AI-Mediated Communication Technology”
After the announcement of AI and its fast integration into various online systems, it’s easier to see how we ended up here. Towards the end of college, most of us trained in artificial intelligence in some way, and we had to prepare for the new technological landscape of verifying our work. Our teachers warned us about using AI in an academically dishonest way and the consequences of using it to do the work for us. In its early form, AI caused a plethora of problems mainly because it would flag original work as plagiarism. The system did not read cited sources well and would conflict with the grammatical format needed for a reference or bibliography. By my last semester, we were more aware of the problems with AI outside of deepfakes and checking how many fingers someone has in an image. The consensus was people would be able to distinguish between real and AI-generated. That’s what we were taught in class too, I remember doing an assignment incorporating AI into our research assignment. The underlying purpose was to train the machine AI was right and wrong but the purpose of the assignment was to distinguish those things and produce scholarly research with this tool. It wasn’t all bad I chose to do my comparison assignment on MLK and Louise Thompson Patterson, I learned more about their ideological similarities. I had the privilege of receiving instruction on how to use AI but no warning of how much I’d be contributing to increased environmental injustices. I haven’t used AI since leaving college, rendering it obsolete and useless to my skills as a writer. We are creating skill, comprehension, and communication issues with each generation, leaving the question is AI redeemable. A question experts are trying to answer about the ethics of AI, but the impact of AI outside of our phones is necessary to understand mistrust in such applications.
Environmental Injustice & Corporations
I couldn’t help but laugh at certain points though nothing is funny about destroying the environment for AI-generated babies or seeing ourselves as action figures. I know it seems like I’m blowing things out of proportion but the increased demand for AI means straining the power grid. As a native Texan who lived through Hurricane Harvey and recently Hurricane Beyrl, building new data centers for such a trivial want is highly irresponsible. For context, data centers are physical locations where technological data is controlled and stored. In an excerpt from Thirdway about AI’s increased energy demands they pinpoint the usual suspects of environmental injustice.
“The intense competition among major tech companies to develop more advanced generative AI models has further increased energy consumption, so much so that within two years, data centers in the US might use as much energy as entire countries like Sweden or Germany.”
AI is mostly for corporate profits for the top executives and some senior level positions at these companies. They understand the impact and even offer a solution by switching to “clean firm power.” I am not an energy expert and most of these concepts are hard to grasp on one’s first read.
To sum up, Clean Firm Energy just thinks more about wind and solar energy, “reducing dependence on carbon-emitting fossil fuels” (Greenhouse gases). The article remains hopeful that Texas will continue to make the necessary changes to clean firm technology. Hope is a necessary principle in fighting against global warming and climate change denialism of climate change. To fight we have to understand the capitalistic greed of the oil and gas industry and where emissions come from. It’s worth reading the Fossil Fuel Pollution section from Environment Texas to understand what we should be advocating for. Michael Lewis’s article on Fossil fuel pollution provides a comprehensive overview of how Texas is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. The majority of the pollution is produced by the transportation, electricity, and fossil Fuel industry. Carbon dioxide is one of the leading greenhouse gas, are emitted from Texas alone. For reference according to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) a million metric tons is roughly the same mass as 1 million small cars. Texas’s hard-earned title as one of the “world’s largest global warming polluters” can be remedied by using renewable energy. As I mentioned electricity is one avenue but AI is also drinking more water than us on any given day. I’ve included excerpts from writer Effie Hossfield of The Scarlet as she details the frivolous nature of AI.
On Earth Day we should all be annoyed at the massive push for AI without disclosing the negative impacts it has on our ONLY planet. I think robots are cool to an extent but not at the expense of a hospitable planet.
Abbott, Musk and Technology
Sustainable solutions are more likely to be undermined by lobbyists, organizations, and billionaires. These three entities can work independently or together to delay clean energy solutions. Scarily enough, “ERCOT predicts that in the next 5 years, around 58% of new demand will come from data centers and crypto mining” and which billionaire is most connected to cryptocurrency? None other than Elon Musk due to his affiliation with Greg Abbott and Bitcoin. After a failed business venture in Delaware Musk ran to the home of big oil and gas in Texas which welcomed him with their pockets open. The article is about the shady practices of Abbott’s business court system, SpaceX in Texas is a rising concern in rural communities.
From Jacobin, I was intrigued to follow the hyperlink that outlined the environmental impacts that is SpaceX and technological nonsense. Billionaires are trying to take 43 acres from Boca Chica State Park. Another example of how anyone who gives a big enough to Greg Abbott can run the state, despite constituient concerns.
The full 477 acres of land which should be for conservation will be sold to the highest billionaire bidder even if native species decline. We learned nothing from the Lorax all this pollution just to launch rockets into space. These well-funded groups have gone as far as to restrict renewable energy. I suggest reading the attached article from the Energy and Policy Institute for additional insight on who’s lobbying away our air quality.
Climate activists have long urged Texas legislatures and residents to push for cleaner solutions in energy and oil operations. The real protectors of the environment are somehow being detained and jailed for protesting big oil and gas. In March, local environmentalists attempted to attend the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, where 8 organizers were arrested. The protestors were outside yelling, “People over profit,” raising legitimate concerns about the health of their communities.
Who powers AI?
AI doesn’t exist in a vacuum, the threat it poses to ‘replace’ humans is tied to the role of labor in a capitalist economy. Generative AI is used by millions of people in America each time a user opens the app they contribute to unsafe living and labor conditions. One year after ChatGPT’s debut, Time Magazine Billy Perrigo documented how OpenAI was made possible due to the outsourced of its labor to “invisible workers.” The article highlights how the billion-dollar company Sama subjects its workers to explicit imagery who are “paid a take-home wage of between around $1.32 and $2 per hour.” Tech companies and the corporations behind them exploit working-class people for labor and physical resources. Corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are financially tied to many different industries The takeaway from Perrigo is, “AI often relies on hidden human labor in the Global South that can often be damaging and exploitative. These invisible workers remain on the margins even as their work contributes to billion-dollar industries.” This doesn’t even cover the racial bias coded into artificial intelligence. To curb the inevitable what does race or ethnicity have to do with this question I want to remind us that AI is made by humans. Humans train the machine however it has many teachers.
We as consumers may use AI for entertainment purposes but that doesn’t mean every entity does. In particular, The U.S. State Department’s commitment to using AI to revoke visas should raise the alarms for everyone. This is framed as a national security issue but it means tot further produces violence against protestors and Muslim Americans.
We can still change direction
Throughout my research into AI, I needed to keep in mind experts are still studying the effects this will have in the years to come. We must stop automating our brains and challenge ourselves to innovate and imagine a healthier world. We assume were from learning AI but were becoming less inquisitive and less empathetic. Is AI redeemable I’m not 100% sure but I won’t be using it anytime soon to find out. In the event you feel the need to generate something, try going outside and enjoying a day on the Earth.
Texas Girl Writes 