Generative AI has been rapidly expanding in popularity over the past few years, and with it has come rising concerns about environmental impact, with large amounts of water and electricity being used to generate text. Sam Altman, Open AI's founder has highlighted these concerns, and OpenAI has stated that the environment is one of its major concerns as it continues to develop GPT models. However, other generative AI alternatives are less concerned. Character AI, despite boasting 20 million monthly users, has no information about it's environmental impact, or any indication on it's blog that it plans to address that impact. 

What we ask for is simple: transparency. What is the current cost of daily interactions with AI chatbots? How much water is consumed per day, how many tons of CO2 emitted per day? What is the work being done to limit these costs? The field of AI and machine learning is rapidly evolving, and limiting access to information and data will do nothing but hinder the progress and innovation our planet so desperately needs. 

With the planet reaching critical warming temperatures, environmental regulations being rolled back and natural disasters decimating communities, it's high time that the industry of the future begins an open and honest conversation on how it will deal with the impact it will have on the climate of our future. Transparency will only have positive impacts, with users able to make more informed choices on AI usage and companies better able to implement sustainable practices.

(image by Overearth)