EPIC Joins 100 Civil Society Organizations Urging Lawmakers to Acknowledge Environmental Harms of AI and Outlining Bold Vision for Keeping AI Within Planetary Limits

As world leaders and industry executives prepare for the AI Action Summit in Paris on Feb. 10 and 11, a hundred civil society organizations, including EPIC, call for them to urgently acknowledge the true environmental harms of AI.

EPIC has frequently published about the real-world harms of AI, from discrimination to privacy violations to threats to democracy. AI’s impact on climate change is another serious category of harm that must be considered in conversations around AI technologies’ benefits and harms.

The computational power and data center capacity required for AI development requires huge amounts of energy and water. The proposals and actions taken to meet this need have been worrying: expanding coal and natural gas plants, investing in expensive and unproven nuclear energy development, and straining the existing power grid. Local communities of massive data centers have experienced adverse health impacts and were met with little transparency. Meanwhile, all levels of governments are courting Big Tech to expand their AI development through tax incentives that hurt the tax base, taking away from funds for other needs of the community.

The statement sets out five categories of demands needed to reduce AI’s environmental harms across its entire supply chain and lifecycle. These include:

1. Phase Out Fossil Fuels. The AI industry must urgently phase out fossil fuels across its entire supply chain. 
2. Computing Within Limits. AI computing infrastructure must urgently be brought within planetary limits. 
3. Responsible Supply Chains. AI companies with substantial marketshare and economic and political influence bear the primary responsibility to ensure a responsible supply chain. 
4. Equitable Participation. It is crucial to have public participation in decisions about what computation is used for and under what conditions. Climate and environmental activism must not be criminalized.
5. Transparency. Transparency must be meaningful, and publicly accessible information about the social and environmental implications of proposed AI infrastructure and should be provided to the public before it is built or scaled.

The groups delivered the letter to AI Action Summit organizers on February 5 and will also speak at the summit’s Forum on Sustainable AI on February 11 at 9:35am CET.

EPIC has done deep research on harms of Generative AI, including environmental impacts. EPIC also regularly comments on regulations of AI to promote stronger AI governance frameworks to mitigate the harms of AI.