AI is an Energy hog, and Government Needs to be Aware
The environmental costs of using artificial intelligence tools is an area of growing concern for government technology officials.
Government’s use of AI tools — and its green-lighting of data center development — can quickly eat away at sustainability goals, Raicu said.
“If you’re talking about local government, and people who care about sustainability and environmental impacts … every time you use generative AI, you have to know that you are pushing in the opposite direction,” she said. “It might be worth it, in certain cases. But you need to understand that you are making a tradeoff every time you use it. And as long as people don’t understand that, they can’t make ethical decisions about when to use it, and when not.”
Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by Government Technology.