Artificial intelligence, often known as AI, is what most people use to create images to post on social media or create detailed essays for school about significant events like World War I. Using certain AI tools like ChatGPT to create a simple prompt not only causes things like electronic waste, but it uses 16 ounces of water just for one conversation.
Some people use AI negatively or positively, But the way it is used does not change the severity of harm that is being caused. Water is used as a cooling agent for AI in-between uses. For data centers that use AI, a person on average could use up to 132 gallons of water just for one day. Every interaction with AI is using water, data centers that use the generative AI eventually get overheated from overworking, so water is pumped through the system to cool down the system and to continue work.
“For me, I don’t use it every day, and I don’t use it to cheat on my stuff but I mostly use it to help me figure out my work, I use it for questions I don’t understand to better help me understand it and I use it also for grading my work so I can see what to fix,” junior Diane Tristan said.
Using AI for simple and small things is not necessarily a bad thing. Places like hospitals use AI to predict patient outcomes or possible illnesses they might have. Some people use AI every day without realizing it. For example, looking up a question on Google and reading off the first thing that comes up is likely going to be an AI review, which is often a summary of commonly known things about the subject, but sometimes it is incorrect.
“There have been students who use AI on assignments that they’ve been able to turn in from outside of class, surprisingly, I feel like its been more of my upper level students, my students who already speak Spanish who are using AI to complete their assignments, but again in this class it’s harder,” Spanish teacher Kristin Macdonald-York said.
AI is what most people would say is regurgitated information from humans; it is scrambled, and a lot of time things don’t match up with the truth. Certain things like pictures will have a portrait of someone with nine fingers in one hand and an extra arm leaving their elbow on the other. Another example is a student using AI to write an essay for them
“I think Ai is a good resource for students, but it does have its downsides, like how it’s very bad for the environment, so if people could find a way to fix up AI so that the environment isn’t harmed but it is also valuable for human consumption,” Tristan said.
The problem with AI is not only inaccuracy and water waste, but also animal endangerment to specific animals like polar bears. Polar bears have been and are subjected to AI’s pollution. Ice is melting rapidly, and it is destroying innocent animals’ habitats. Water waste by AI is taking away animals living sources and it affects more than just polar bears.
Ways to prevent being dependent on AI is to find reliable sources that are up to date and do not promote AI related ads, finding weak points in things like photos that do not make sense is very important. Eliminating any use of AI helps significantly even if it’s one person.