How artificial intelligence impacts the environment

Abstract

This paper explores the complex environmental implications of artificial intelligence, focusing on both its significant environmental costs and its potential sustainability benefits. It highlights how AI’s rapid growth drives increased energy consumption, water usage, and demand for physical infrastructure, contributing to carbon emissions and resource depletion, while also demonstrating how AI can enhance climate modeling, optimize resource management, monitor environmental changes, and support evidence-based decision making. The study emphasizes that achieving a balance between these impacts requires responsible AI development, deployment, and regulation, ensuring that technological advancements contribute positively to environmental sustainability.