Environmental groups embrace AI, even as they warn of data center impacts

Environmental organizations are leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze climate data, monitor forest fires, and count endangered species, despite acknowledging the technology's contribution to increased electricity demand, water usage, and greenhouse gas emissions. This paradox has led these groups to justify their AI usage in combating climate change and safeguarding natural resources.

AI lead at the US nonprofit Conservation International, Ali Swanson, recognizes that AI can have environmental costs and stresses the need for careful consideration in its application. Despite these concerns, AI's potential to expedite climate and biodiversity-related efforts has convinced many organizations to adopt it.

During a Reuters interview, 15 major environmental, conservation, and development organizations revealed their AI usage and expressed concerns about the environmental impact of data centers powering this technology. Data centers, housing numerous servers, consume vast amounts of electricity and water for cooling. The dilemma of balancing AI's benefits with its considerable risks is expected to be a focal point at the upcoming UN's COP31 climate conference.

Organizations believe the advantages of AI currently outweigh its costs since it enables work that was once impractical, costly, or impossible. For instance, Kenya's Save the Elephants uses machine learning for population surveys and elephant communication studies, while Frank Pope, the group's CEO, reported that AI models can process 200,000 images in hours, a task previously completed manually by nine people over nine months. More accurate wildlife data can facilitate securing conservation funding.

Some organizations are exploring ways to mitigate AI's environmental impact. The World Resources Institute (WRI) limits resource-intensive applications and caches AI query results, while The Nature Conservancy uses AI to analyze video from commercial fishing vessels without uploading large numbers of videos to centralized data centers.

Additionally, researchers at the Jane Goodall Institute have utilized AI to digitize decades of handwritten field notes about chimpanzee behavior in Tanzania's Gombe National Park, reducing the time required for this task from 13-15 years to just two.