MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Category · 03.06.00
Environmental and socioeconomic harms
Description
"At a time of increasing climate urgency, energy consumption and the carbon footprint of AI applications are also matters of ethics and responsibility [68]. As with other energy-intensive technologies like proof-of-work blockchain, the call is to research more environmentally sustainable algorithms to offset the increasing use scale."
From Navigating the Landscape of AI Ethics and Responsibility (Cunha2023), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).
Classification
- Subdomain
- 6.6 Environmental harm
- Causal entity
- AI
- Intent
- Unintentional
- Timing
- Post-deployment
Subdomain definition: The development and operation of AI systems causing environmental harm, such as through energy consumption of data centers, or material and carbon footprints associated with AI hardware.