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AI, Sustainability, and Environmental Ethics

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Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Part of the book series: The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology ((ELTE,volume 41))

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments are proliferating at an astonishing rate. Unsurprisingly, the number of meaningful studies addressing the social impacts of AI applications in several fields has been remarkable. More recently, several contributions have started exploring the ecological impacts of AI. Machine learning systems do not have a neutral environmental cost, so it is important to unravel the ecological footprint of these techno-scientific developments. In this chapter, we discuss the sustainability of AI from environmental ethics approaches. We examine the moral trade-offs that AI may cause in different moral dimensions and analyse prominent conflicts that may arise from human and more-than-human-centred concerns.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Other authors have included the notion of sustainability within the principle of beneficence, as the widest interpretation of beneficence is concerned also about the welfare of future generations and of non-human species, and the health of the environment (Floridi et al. 2018).

  2. 2.

    Although the terms ‘ecological’ and ‘environmental’ are often used interchangeably, these notions have different nuances. Whereas ‘environmental’ refers to what surrounds the human being, ‘ecological’ refers to oikos (i.e. the house) in which humans and other beings live.

  3. 3.

    The problem of e-waste seems to be even greater when digital devices are processed in “informal recycling contexts”, as it sometimes occurs in low- and middle-income countries with fewer environmental control protocols and through polluting practices as incineration (Lucivero 2020).

  4. 4.

    Even if total electricity consumption increases, to measure efficiency gains, it is still relevant to assess whether this trend is worthwhile in proportion to the technological improvement in question. For example, an article published in Science on global energy consumption by data centres estimated that, from 2010 to 2018, computer instances had increased by 550% while electricity use had only increased by 6% (Masanet et al. 2020).

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the insightful comments of Jan Deckers on a previous version of this chapter. Cristian Moyano-Fernández thanks the funding of the project “Ética del Rewilding en el Antropoceno: Comprendiendo los Escollos de Regenerar Éticamente lo Salvaje (ERA-CERES)”, with reference PZ618328 / D043600, funded by Fundación BBVA; and the project “La solidaridad en bioética (SOLBIO)” with reference PID2019-105422GB-100, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Jon Rueda also thanks the funding of the research project EthAI+3 (Digital Ethics. Moral Enhancement through an Interactive Use of Artificial Intelligence) of the State Research Agency of the Spanish Government (PID2019-104943RB-I00), the project SOCRAI3 (Moral Enhancement and Artificial Intelligence. Ethical aspects of a virtual Socratic assistant) of FEDER Junta de Andalucía (B-HUM-64-UGR20), and an INPhINIT Retaining Fellowship of the La Caixa Foundation (LCF/BQ/DR20/11790005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain

    Cristian Moyano-Fernández

  2. Department of Philosophy, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Cristian Moyano-Fernández

  3. Department of Philosophy I, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Jon Rueda

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  1. Cristian Moyano-Fernández
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Correspondence to Jon Rueda .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy I, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Francisco Lara

  2. School of Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

    Jan Deckers

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Moyano-Fernández, C., Rueda, J. (2023). AI, Sustainability, and Environmental Ethics. In: Lara, F., Deckers, J. (eds) Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, vol 41. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48135-2_11

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