Artificial intelligence and the environment: ethical challenges and strategic opportunities for organizations

Abstract

In this viewpoint article, our goal is to raise awareness and spark debate in the Information Systems (IS) community regarding a prominent concern that has important strategic and ethical implications: the environmental impact of the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI). We examine several specific issues, beginning with GAI’s heavy consumption of natural resources and electricity. We then move to assessing how the rich and the Global North gain via GAI, while the poor and the Global South must deal with its adverse effects. We then move to assessing GAI’s impact on underrepresented communities and countries in the Global South; while GAI contributes to global warming, this affects people unevenly, because it is mostly rich people and the Global North that make intensive use of these technologies. After suggesting that more local and global laws are needed to regulate the sustainable use of AI, we report on how organizations can perform AI strategizing, for instance to control emissions in smart cities and improve weather forecasting. We conclude with a research agenda that aims to encourage IS scholars to focus on the environmental impact of AI, its ethical implications for organizations, and how GAI can be used strategically to benefit all.