The advancement of artificial intelligence has sparked a debate regarding its ecological consequences. Research has revealed that when it comes to writing and illustrating, AI produces far lower carbon emissions compared to humans carrying out the same duties, with a reduction of hundreds of times. Nevertheless, the authors contend that AI cannot and should not supplant human writers and illustrators.

Energy consumption

Like cryptocurrencies, AI has been discussed regarding its energy consumption and impact on climate change. While there has been extensive research on human emissions and their environmental impact, there needs to be more comparative studies between them. The researchers did a comparative analysis and discovered that AI systems produce between 130 and 1,500 times fewer CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions per page of generated text than human writers. Similarly, illustration systems release between 310 and 2,900 times less CO2e per image than people.

Carbon footprint

The researchers employed the energy budget to determine a person's carbon footprint. This measure considers the energy used in specific tasks over a given period. For example, it is commonly understood how much power a computer running word-processing software consumes every hour. The average time to write a page is 250 words, so multiply by that to get an estimate. AI is estimated using the same energy as CPUs that run AI, such as ChatGPT, which outputs text faster.

Emissions of people

Researchers also looked at the per capita emissions of people in the United States and India. Residents in the former emit approximately 15 metric tons of CO2e each year, whilst the latter emits an average of 1.9 tons. The two countries were chosen because they have the biggest and lowest per capita environmental effect of countries with populations of more than 300 million, respectively, and to provide an overview of varied amounts of emissions in other parts of the world about AI.

Bloom's influence is 1,400 times smaller than that of a US citizen writing a page of text and 180 times less than that of an Indian person. In terms of illustration, the findings revealed that DALL-E2 emits around 2,500 times less CO2e than a human artist and 310 times less than an Indian artist. The figures for Midjourney were 2,900 times fewer for the former and 370 times less for the latter.

AI production

The authors stated that carbon emissions are only one factor to consider when comparing AI production to human output. As technologies exist now, they are frequently unable to produce the same level of writing or art as humans. As they improve, they can eliminate existing jobs while creating new ones.

Other causes

Work loss can cause significant economic, societal, and other types of upheaval. For these and other reasons, the authors concluded that the best road ahead is likely cooperation between AI and human efforts or a system in which people may use AI to be more efficient in their jobs while maintaining control over the result.

Conclusion

The researchers undertook the study to enhance comprehension of AI and its ecological consequences and tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of promoting sustainable consumption and production practices and taking immediate action to battle climate change and its repercussions.

The authors have started utilizing AI to generate initial versions of their writing. However, they also acknowledge the importance of meticulous editing and manual additions to these drafts.

Researchers information

• Bill Tomlinson, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington-Te Herenga Waka, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand
• Rebecca W. Black, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA
• Donald J. Patterson, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, 93108, USA
• Andrew W. Torrance, School of Law, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54271-x

Image source: Unsplash