Artificial intelligence use is incredibly prominent among college students, with 83% of college-aged individuals using AI to some extent, and 58% of those people using it frequently, according to YouGov.
AI use has many repercussions with an especially intense impact against the environment.
At the University of St. Thomas, AI has begun to become a requirement in sections of introductory classes like GEOL 115, PHIL 110, ENTR 100, and is heavily encouraged in others. At a university that highly values the well-being of the environment and sustainability, along with the well-being of its students, the required use of AI in class should be severely regulated.
However, Thomas Hickson, a professor in the earth, environment and society department, says the main problem doesn’t lie in the individual use of AI, but rather the lack of regulation.
“We have no energy policy in this country. We currently have a president that is saying, ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ to use the worst possible fossil fuels that you can,” Hickson said. “That’s unethical.”
The high demand for data centers to power AI already can’t be met in a sustainable way.
Noman Bashir, computing and climate impact fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in MIT News, “The pace at which companies are building new data centers means the bulk of the electricity to power them must come from fossil fuel-based power plants.”
Fossil fuel is currently the largest contributor to climate change, according to the Institute for Environmental Research and Education.
Hickson requires the use of AI in his geology and geographic information system classes.
“What I’ve been trying to do is get people to use it with a critical eye,” Hickson said.
Hickson has also used ChatGPT to prompt in-class conversations, having students ask the chatbot questions, as otherwise, “It’s usually crickets, because most students don’t really want to respond right away.”
The International Energy Agency put out a study that suggests a single query put into a large language model uses 2.9 watt-hours of electricity, with a regular internet search using 0.3 watt-hours. This may not immediately seem too drastic of a difference, but it is crucial to note that currently, ChatGPT is the second most popular text-based search platform, receiving over 2.5 billion queries per day, according to Data Studios.
Teaching in the earth, environment and society department, though, Hickson said students have refused to use AI in projects due to the issue of sustainability.
“I respect that, but it’s really interesting because most of the comments I’ve had are, ‘Thank you for doing this,’ Hickson said. ”I’m never going to prevent you, so all I can really do is help you learn to use it effectively.”
According to Mahmut Kandemir, a professor of computer science and engineering at PennState University, AI has a potential of accounting for 20% of global electricity use by 2030.
To require AI in class only encourages excessive energy use that could easily be avoided. If everyone believes their individual use doesn’t matter, consumption rates will only continue to rise, and as a result of this, so will fossil fuel use.
Hickson said he attempts to use the refusal of AI as a “jumping off place” to discuss the environmental issues with energy consumption. He believes that being automatically against AI due to the environmental impacts alone is an “unnuanced opinion.”
Despite this, Hickson’s students remain skeptical; Adrien Moen, a first-year majoring in environmental science, was against using AI in a final project.
“I think it’s odd that a professor who’s there to teach is encouraging not going to him first for help for the stuff he’s teaching,” Moen said. “I think if someone is okay with using something that is overall so damaging to the environment and many other people…partaking in that at all, that’s the ethical issue. I don’t understand how people can be okay with that, even if it’s not them directly doing the harm.”
It is impossible to deny that many students will continue to use AI for class, though, whether it’s required or not.
Wendy Wyatt, a professor in media ethics at St. Thomas, said she believes it will be hard for students not to engage in AI.
“I would hope that students will want to use AI as a tool to help, rather than as a shortcut,” Wyatt said. “One of the things that I feel is really important is to build some AI literacy, to understand at least the foundations of AI.”
When it comes to energy consumption from individual use, Wyatt said it’s important to be thoughtful with how often you use AI.
“I’m not just jumping in all day long with anything that comes to my mind…it’s the same way I act with all kinds of things, like I turn the lights on when it’s dark, but I try to turn them off when I leave the room,” Wyatt said.
Sophia Hard, a third-year environmental science major, said she has used AI to assist in R and Stella model codes as was heavily encouraged in class, and that it can be helpful in finding where to start with complex computer systems. Hard said it aided in better grasping the subject.
“On the other hand, AI is extremely damaging and often creates an ‘easy’ route, where students are not solving problems using their own brain power. As a population, we were fine before AI, and we can be okay without it,” Hard said.
Angeline Patrick Pacheco can be reached at patr3972@stthomas.edu.
