Americans are increasingly worried about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence. According to a new survey, 53% of respondents indicated that they are concerned about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, which is an increase from 41% last year.
Growing Concerns Among Democrats
This survey, conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, shows that most of the increase in concerns is among Democrats. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats are worried about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, while the figures for independents and Republicans are 50% and 40%, respectively.
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Greg Stanton, a 30-year-old Republican from Arlington, Virginia, expressed concern about the impacts of data centers on the environment, stating, "It makes me think about how much energy is being consumed." Data centers, which serve as key infrastructures for artificial intelligence and cloud computing services, are rapidly increasing and raising significant concerns about energy costs and water resources.
Local Impacts and Public Concerns
A recent report from the United Nations University predicts that the environmental footprint of data centers, which currently competes with some of the largest countries, will grow rapidly with the increased adoption of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, nearly 60% of Americans are calling for limits on the number of new data centers, and these concerns are shared among both Democrats and Republicans.
Respondents have also expressed concerns that data centers could affect local electricity prices and water supply due to their high water and energy consumption. Feng-Chi Yu, an energy systems engineer at Cornell University, stated, "The use of water for cooling artificial intelligence chips may be low on a national level, but it is impactful at the local level."
About two-thirds of American adults are calling for the use of clean energy resources to meet the energy needs of data centers. This support is particularly strong among Democrats, where 80% of them back this idea.
While many Americans are concerned about the environmental impacts of data centers, others say these concerns are far from their minds. Marie Fisher, a 68-year-old Republican from Jacksonville, Florida, says, "This issue seems to not exist in my community, and I don't have any specific concerns about it."
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Source: independent.co.uk
