Question: a) What current AI-related issues, developments, or decisions do you find especially relevant to contemporary society? Craft a short post to give your classmates an overview of the issues involved and why it’s so important.
I feel that current AI issues and developments that are the most relevant to contemporary society is specifically the ethical issues. I think that the environment where it stands is extremely fragile. The energy and water sources that are used by AI each day are extremely detrimental to the environment. Although these are very significant issues, there are other environmental and general ethical problems that are not as talked about and get swept under the rug. I feel that the biggest problem are the issues that go without being noticed that end up being the most harmful to certain human demographics and the earth. For example, environmentally, a lot of society doesn’t realize the waste that is produced in mass amounts that accumulates from the factories that build and develop artificial intelligence. These infrastructures are known to put harmful substances into the earth such as mercury and even lead. This is toxic to the soil and water surrounding the factory. It is important to note it ts especially exploitative that many undeveloped countries in the global south already suffer from poor air quality and un-clean water. Speaking to clean water, this is extremely concerning given that %25 of the global population does not have good access to clean water, and it is projected soon that global AI water usage will accumulate to exceed the water usage of an entire small country (such as Denmark – 6million). As water is one of the largest substances widely used in mass by AI production, energy is the other respectively. According to the International Energy Agency, a ChatGPT request doesn’t use double, not 5 times, but 10 times the amount of energy as a google search. The energy that is needed to produce these is very stressful specifically in our atmostphere as it contributes to higher carbon emissions. This can also all have effects directly on ecosystems that are smaller and have negative impacts on city water.
Sources:
https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
Hey Breena! I totally agree, ethical considerations regarding AI use is super relevant to contemporary society. I liked your post because I think the environmental cost of often gets overlooked. Your comparison to Denmark’s water usage put how much water and energy these systems use, and how seriously it affects communities into perspective for me. Environmental Consequences definetly deserve more awareness and discussion.
Hopefully environmental concerns can be solved in the near future while maintaining technological advances in mind. Other mass data centers require their own supply of water to cool their equipment alongside the energy require to run the facilities. My main concern with AI and these efforts to build centers are how certain these buildings will be up in the future. I believe it is not guaranteed that AI is here to stay, and in such a volatile environment, I wouldn’t want to see the building space go to waste.