Governor Healey recently signed an Executive Order establishing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategic Task Force, and the Governor plans to seek $100 million in the upcoming Economic Development Bill to create an applied AI hub in Massachusetts.
Whatever the merits of the development of AI for the economy, medicine, and other important applications, citizens and the legislature must consider the environmental impacts of using new wind power for this venture while we have fallen behind in shifting from fossil fuel sources to renewables. Deborah Baker has challenged us to take a good look at the Governor's proposal and the idea of using electricity from offshore wind in a letter to the Editor of The Daily News of Newburyport, which we present below.
Protection of Natural Resources is a cornerstone initiative of the Alliance for Climate and Environmental Stewards (ACES). See: https://www.aces-alliance.org/initiatives/our-natural-resources Their promotion of AI data centers is in direct opposition to this goal. Any contributions AI makes to climate solutions will be far outweighed by its global energy and water needs.
In two recent columns in The Daily News (November 15 and 22, 2024), ACES proposed that power from new sources of wind energy in the Gulf of Maine be allocated toward the development of Artificial Intelligence data centers, in the interest of promoting that industry in Massachusetts. AI data centers—which process staggering amounts of data—require tremendous amounts of water and electricity for their operation. For instance, a ChatGPT query consumes almost ten times the energy of a simple Google search. As AI becomes more sophisticated, its power needs will also rise.
As a renewable energy source, wind power has the potential to reduce our reliance on oil and gas. Allocating wind energy to power AI data centers would drastically impact that goal and jeopardize our chance to decrease our fossil fuel dependence.
Additionally, tremendous amounts of water are used to cool the computers. Water is a non-renewable resource that would come from our rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Current drought conditions demonstrate the vigilance we must exercise with our water resources.
Finally, the noise generated by computer data centers is a huge concern. Neighbors in southern states have been alarmed when these plants get built nearby without any regulatory oversight. An article in the NYTimes describes the whirr of the cooling fans as sounding like a non-stop leaf blower.
Local officials are no match for the technology companies that coerce communities into signing non-disclosure agreements before construction begins. According to the author of this NYT article, these efforts are designed to bypass zoning and other regulatory requirements. By then, it’s too late to stop them.
AS AI data centers proliferate around the world, climate goals are at risk of being upended. As an example, Microsoft has recently hedged on its stated climate goals, largely due to its embrace of AI. We, the undersigned, call on environmental organizations to carefully review and evaluate the costs and potential benefits around the construction of AI data centers in Massachusetts.
Respectfully,
Deborah Baker, West Newbury – Beyond Plastics Greater Boston
Jerry Halberstadt — Breathe Clean North Shore; Mass Climate Action Network; Clean Power Coalition
Judith Black— Sustainable Marblehead (founding member); 350 Mass; JCAN (Jewish Climate Action Network); HealthLink (board member)
(Affiliations are for identification purposes only)
Resources
Governor Maura Healey signed an Executive Order establishing the Artificial Intelligence Strategic Task Force to study AI and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technology and its impact on the state, private businesses, higher education institutions, and constituents. The Task Force will conduct outreach and collect input from stakeholders and experts, advise the Governor and executive branch on the state’s role in AI implementation, and find ways to encourage leading industries to adopt this technology to ensure continued success.
The mission of the Task Force is to create specific recommendations for how the state can best support the state’s businesses in leading sectors around AI adoption. It will also produce recommendations focused on startups’ ability to scale and succeed in Massachusetts. "Massachusetts has the opportunity to be a global leader in Applied AI...”—Press Release
Crownhart, Casey, AI is an energy hog. This is what it means for climate change: How worried should we be about AI’s effects on the grid? MIT Technology Review, May 23, 2024
International Energy Agency, Electricity 2024: Analysis and forecast to 2026
Lee, Peter; Goldberg, Carey; Kohane, Isaac. The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond, 2023 Pearson Education.
MIT Climate and Sustainability Forum, Considering the Environmental Impacts of Generative AI to Spark Responsible Development, April 10, 2024
Kyle Orland, Taking a closer look at AI’s supposed energy apocalypse: AI is just one small part of data centers’ soaring energy use. Ars Technica, Jun 25, 2024
Tyndal, Dwaign, AI’s Dark Side: Climate chaos and pollution, especially in Black and Brown neighborhoods, ACE, October 21, 2024.
Wang, Q., Li, Y. & Li, R. Ecological footprints, carbon emissions, and energy transitions: the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 1043 (2024).