By George P. Nassos
We have been reading for several decades about technology replacing human jobs. About ten years ago there was a New York Times article titled “Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs?” It described several careers that our children would love to pursue but may be taken by robots. A position as a medical radiologist may be replaced by a start-up, Arterys, which can read an MRI scan in 15 seconds that may take a radiologist 45 minutes. Another example is a prototype robotic surgeon called STAR (Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot) that outperformed human surgeons in a test in which both had to repair the severed intestine of a live pig.
Now all we read is about the impact that AI is having on many businesses and their employees. For example, Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, said last year that it had replaced hundreds of human resources employees with AI and that it would cut thousands of workers in the fourth quarter of 2025, affecting a “single-digit percentage of its global workforce.” The company is shifting priorities to hire more people around AI and quantum. Over the next five years, about 30% of the employees will be replaced by AI. In automobile manufacturing, robots have been used probably since the 1980’s.
AI has not only been having an impact on the business community but also in the educational system. Students have been using AI systems like ChatGPT to write papers for class for quite a while. They are also relying on AI for many tasks that they would normally perform on their own. AI is starting to do the thinking for this younger and subsequent generations. This will obviously have a negative impact on the future of this generation if they start losing their thinking ability.
AI is also having a negative impact on the environment. While it may make businesses more efficient, we need to consider the operation of AI. It is software that requires many data centers to operate. These data centers consume large quantities of energy and require large quantities of water for cooling. The AI companies are planning to install these data centers near large cities but will most likely be in nearby areas with available land. Arizona is expected to install over 190 data centers and already has 23 operating with another 29 planned. I’m not sure how this is going to work out considering that area has a major deficiency of water already.
The increase in energy demand by the data centers will put a strain on the growth of renewable energy and may therefore continue the operation of exiting coal fired power plants as well as natural gas power plants. This will make it more difficult to reduce carbon emissions to meet the goal of the atmospheric temperature increasing to a minimum of 1.5°C. above pre-industrial revolution levels. We must also consider that whatever amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) are added to the atmosphere, they remain in the atmosphere for many years depending on the specific gas. Even if no additional GHG were emitted into the atmosphere, the warming effect would continue.
There are other environmental issues that may be impacted by AI. Already mentioned is the large need of water for the data centers to operate AI. There are major cities like Cape Town, South Africa that have already depleted all their water. How can they afford to introduce AI? Data centers also require the consumption of the earth’s materials like elements and minerals. The environmental impact of mining these materials can lead to habitat destruction and pollution. The Global Footprint Network which has been analyzing the consumption of the earth’s natural resources for over 30 years has determined that we are currently consuming the equivalent of 1.8 earths, and it is getting worse every year. Between climate change, water depletion and the overconsumption of natural resources, how long can this go on?
This reminds me of a movie I saw almost 20 years ago, “Wall-E”. The movie took place in the 29th century after a long period of time when humans were leaving the uninhabitable earth to travel to another planet. The only thing left on earth was AI generated robots designed to clean the waste left behind so humans could eventually start returning. After some time, all the robots stopped functioning except for Wall-E which depended on parts from the other robots to continue its job of cleaning up the earth.
AI is advancing so quickly that I expect/hope we will soon resolve the environmental pollution problems and create a livable planet. Nobody wants to depend on Wall-E.