Is Artificial Intelligence sustainable and environmental friendly?
In an era of rapid technological advancement, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone of innovation, offering efficiency in automating repetitive tasks. However, as interesting as AI may be, it comes with a heavy price that is often overlooked—its devastating environmental and social impact.
The vast server farms that power AI consume staggering amounts of energy and water. These servers, running continuously to process and generate data, demand extensive cooling systems to prevent overheating. The result is a significant drain on our natural resources, with countless liters of water used for cooling, and enormous energy consumption that often relies on non-renewable sources. In fact,
Against our own rules, we inquiried Chat GPT on its declared consumption, and the outcome was astonishing. You can read below the surprising confession of guilt.
Chat GPT defines its own envirnmental impact for training
A study by researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that training large AI models like those used in natural language processing can emit over 626,000 pounds (284 metric tons) of CO2, which is roughly five times the lifetime emissions of an average car, including both the vehicle’s manufacturing and fuel use (sources: State of the Planet, JPT).
Moreover, training AI models like GPT-3 consumes vast amounts of electricity—around 1,287 MWh, equivalent to the carbon emissions from 550 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco (source: Carbon Credits). This highlights the significant environmental cost of AI, especially as the demand for more powerful models increases.
While AI is indeed a technological marvel, the growing carbon footprint is a serious concern, contributing to global climate challenges. Efforts are being made to develop greener AI technologies by utilizing renewable energy sources and optimizing data center efficiency (source: Carbon Credits)
Source: Chat GPT
Chat GPT analyzes the environmental impact of its massive usage
When it comes to the widespread usage of AI, such as performing tasks like answering queries or generating content, the environmental impact is significant, especially in terms of energy and water consumption.
For instance, large AI models like GPT-3, which are frequently used for various AI applications, consume massive amounts of energy during both their training and inference phases. Inference—the process where AI models provide responses—can be just as energy-intensive, especially given the scale of AI usage. ChatGPT, for example, requires much more energy for a single query than a standard Google search, consuming about 4-5 times more energy (source: State of the Planet).
In terms of water consumption, AI systems rely on water-cooled data centers to prevent overheating. For every single AI inference (query), about 16.9 milliliters of water is consumed on average, primarily for cooling servers (source: Deepgram, OECD AI). When you scale this up to the millions of inferences made daily by systems like ChatGPT, the total water usage becomes astonishing.
As AI usage continues to grow, it’s projected that by 2030, data centers (many of which power AI) could consume up to 21% of global electricity (source: Nature). This underlines the environmental burden AI technologies place on both energy grids and water resources, which is why more sustainable computing practices are becoming crucial.
Source: Chat GPT
At Siam Trade Development, we choose a different path. Sustainability and ethic are the heart of everything we do. We consciously strictly limit the use of products or services that harm the environment or jeopardize the well-being of future generations. Our commitment to the planet goes beyond avoiding AI for environmental reasons; we believe in maintaining a human-centered approach to business.
Not only is AI energy-hungry, but it also poses a risk to human employment. As AI increasingly takes over routine tasks, many jobs that once required human ingenuity and dedication are being automated. This raises concerns about the future of work and the livelihoods of countless individuals across industries. At Siam Trade Development, we firmly believe in investing in people, not machines.
Every interaction you have with our company is with a real, skilled individual—a person with a mind, emotions, and the ability to understand and empathize with your needs. When you contact us, the response comes from someone who cares about your concerns, someone capable of abstract thought, creativity, and genuine human connection. This is how it has always been throughout human history, and this is how it will continue to be for us.
Our workforce consists of highly trained professionals who are not only valued for their skills but are compensated fairly and given the full benefits they deserve. We do not rely on AI to replace human effort. Instead, we foster an environment where people thrive, where their work is recognized, and where sustainability is integrated into every decision we make.
Siam Trade Development stands for the environment, for sustainable technology, and for the support of the people who make our company what it is today. We are committed to making a difference—not just through the services we offer, but through the way we operate. When you choose us, you’re choosing a company that values both the planet and its people.
Let’s build a sustainable future together—one where innovation and empathy work hand in hand.
