Over the past few years, AI has been on the rise at an exponential rate. Whether you love it or hate it, you have to realize that it will be impacting every single human on the planet, more than likely, one day.
Something you may not have known is the environmental impact of AI. This subject has been overlooked for years. Things like AI use lots of energy, which in turn releases lots of carbon emissions. According to Carbon Direct, in 2024, 0.01 percent of carbon emissions are from AI. This may not seem like a lot, but you must keep in mind that there is a huge number of people who drive each day, emitting 2–2.3 pounds of carbon a day, which is unbelievable because carbon is practically weightless in gas form.
Another environmental impact of AI is the amount of fresh water it uses. On Earth — according to NASA — only 3% of water is drinkable, while 2% of that is locked in glaciers and ice caps. According to Bloomberg, AI uses millions of liters of water a day. By 2050, half of the world will have water shortages, and AI using millions of liters of water is certainly adding to it. Which does not seem like a lot, but in 11490683 days, which is 31481 years, according to a 2015 study that is when we are projected to run out of freshwater; however, that was from 2015 projections, and since then, nearly a billion more people are on Earth, and they did not use as much water as we do now. This means that the number of years could have drastically gone down since then.
Another bad thing about AI is that it takes creativity away. AI has countless uses, such as art and book writing. Just these two things are making people lose jobs all around the world, and according to The Guardian, hundreds of thousands protested AI being used in creative spaces. AI does not have an imagination, so you may wonder where its art and book ideas/writing ideas come from.
The answer to that question is quite simple; it plagiarizes it. This is the main reason why so many people have been protesting over the past few years. For instance, the way AI makes this “art” is by stealing artists’ artwork and using the artists’ style to create new art.
Another problem with AI is the matter of how accurate it is. The way AI gets its information is by summarizing articles or other websites. For instance, if you want to know something from the medical field, it will be correct 95% of the time, according to Science Direct. On the contrary, according to Mashable, it is generally incorrect more than 60% of the time.
However, AI isn’t all bad. For instance, apps like Grammarly have made their entire company around AI grammar checking, and, according to Grammarly, over 40 million people have used Grammarly to check their grammar.
Another good thing about AI is that it increases human efficiency as it helps students study. To combat cheating, ChatGPT has created a study mode. This feature is genuinely useful because it doesn’t just tell you the answer; it helps you through until you get it right. This feature allows you to use AI effectively without cheating, because it helps you learn instead of giving you the answer instantly.
“I only use AI outside of school about twice a day,” says Paula Stefanakos, an English teacher, also stating that “I use AI to create classwork occasionally, but not often.”
“As a teacher knowing the material, if I ask AI a question about the classwork, I can pick and choose the information that it provides me. If a student who did not know the material asked AI, they just have to trust that AI will have the correct information and that it can help them,” says Stefanakos. This really shows that if students use AI to get answers, instead of using it to learn how to answer a question, they will not comprehend the material as well as people who do the classwork without AI.
“I have caught at least a dozen students cheating on schoolwork using AI, and suspected many more, based on sudden changes in grades,” says Stefanakos.
While AI is a great tool to use in education, it is only useful if you use it in the right ways. Many students use it/have used it before, and it can really help both students and teachers. And to answer the question of whether you should use it, it is completely up to you.
