ChatGPT was recently revealed to have over 300 million weekly users, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman making the announcement and pretty much guaranteeing that this figure will only see an uptick. While that is positive news for the company, it is expected to impact the environment massively, with one expert speaking at a lecture that generative AI’s rapid growth would have a deleterious impact on the environment.
Generative AI is predicted to utilize as much energy as Japan within a year if a sustainability plan is not introduced
At the Victoria State Library, The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australian AI expert Professor Kate Crawford, who was recently present in TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in AI, warns that these systems are reshaping the planet in hidden but lasting ways. She states that there is no outrunning climate change, so it is imperative that reducing the globe’s carbon footprint becomes a priority.
“We are under enormous pressure to try to decarbonise by mid-century, and if we don’t, we’re looking at the sort of spiralling planetary impacts that will affect all of us. You can’t outrun climate change. So even for tech billionaires, this should be an issue that we should all be able to get behind because, frankly, we just don’t have the time to waste to be building systems that are using as much energy and creating carbon footprints as big as entire industrial nations. This is not the time to be doing that.”
Comparing a ChatGPT query with a natural resource metric, Crawford says that each search results in the wastage of half a litre of water. This comparison alone suggests that companies should not be focused on who has the lead in the AI race, but which entity focuses more on sustainability.
“We’re wasting a lot of water with these systems, and very few people realise that it’s a major problem. That’s why I think personally the No.1 priority for the sector should be sustainability. Not the AI race.”
The launch of ChatGPT was certainly a ‘shocking’ revelation for the competition and the masses, but two years after the chatbot arrived, Crawford believes that it is now time to see the service as how useful it is, what is working for the human race and what is not. In general, generative AI should be a contributing factor to a prosperous society rather than cause problems that, ultimately, a human will have to tackle in the coming years.
News Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
