I think I heard “ChatGPT” more than I heard my own name this summer. People are both intrigued and concerned regarding artificial intelligence’s (AI) capabilities, but what many people haven’t thought about is how AI will affect our environment.

To me, AI’s application to our environment should read like a medical commercial. The first half of the commercial details amazing benefits, such as how AI can optimize renewable energy systems, improve monitoring of severe weather events, and even generate new ideas to make our environment more sustainable.

That all sounds great! Look at my renewable energy internship– I could use AI to scan through hundreds of pages of dense documentation, help debug sections of code, and work towards improving models of safety measures and renewable energy generation efficiency. This would allow me to maximize my productivity and think bigger.

Exciting, right? Then comes that pesky second half of the commercial that distracts you with an adorable puppy while the narrator speeds through the risks: AI can be prejudiced due to biased data, present incorrect information, and overlook important risks. What they probably wouldn’t mention, but is also significant, is that it takes an incredible amount of energy to train AI models. If I took all of AI’s instructions for face value, I could be stuck in an infinite loop of fixing errors. Sometimes AI simply provides incorrect code that it cannot correct, and I’ve had to actually call a real person to get the example code I needed. I guess AI won’t be taking her job….

So do the side effects mean you shouldn’t take the medication? It depends– sometimes taking a calculated risk makes sense. The truth is that AI is here to stay, which means we must be proactive in managing the “side effects” of AI. Technology is actually pretty dumb, AI included. It can’t truly think for itself. It still has to be told what to do! Because of this, we need to examine factors like how the data we use may be biased, where the energy to train AI models comes from, and what are components of an environmental problem or solution that an artificially intelligent system may have overlooked. This semester, I will critically examine how artificial intelligence can be thoughtfully utilized to better our environment.

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons, Flikr