"Local and state governments can consider using their procurement processes to require technology vendors to disclose more information about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

“Ask them to disclose their energy usage and water usage,” Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said Wednesday at the GovAI Coalition Summit* in San Jose.

“Put it in a contract, and see what happens. Is that company really going to not want to work with you, rather than not disclose their usage?” she said during a summit panel, in a discussion centered on the environmental costs associated with emerging AI tools used by government and consumers. “If a company is saying, probably. Think about what that means. Think about what it means if a company says, we would rather not work with you than disclose that information.”

The emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT and the rising number of AI-enabled applications used every day by government and consumers at all levels is fueling growth in data centers — and an appetite for the energy and water needed to support those centers. Other environmental concerns are associated with activities like the development of computer chips and related devices also needed in today’s super-computing world, experts said."

https://www.govtech.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-is-an-energy-hog-and-government-needs-to-be-aware

#AI #GenerativeAI #Environment #WaterUsage #Energy