Assessing effects of AI’s environmental impacts on human health

The unremitting increase in the use of AI creates implications – both positive and negative – for people and the planet. However, the impacts are not random; certain groups or individuals are more likely to be disadvantaged by this global shift, while others benefit excessively. While we know inequity will increase, it is not fully established how negative impacts will proliferate. Consequently, this project seeks to understand the negative implications AI has on the environment, and how these, in turn, affect the health of people and the planet.

To investigate this, the study aims to collect and analyse empirical evidence of how AI adversely impacts human and planetary health. It will do this using a variety of methods. First, interviews with people from a variety of stakeholder groups will be conducted to assess different views on the topic, with a focus on those whose health is directly affected by the environmental consequences of AI. Interviews will also be held with health, judicial and political professionals to gain expert opinions. Second, the academic literature around this issue will be reviewed to identify which associations between AI and health impacts are being made, and which are neglected. Also, online conversations that foreground the environmental – and, by extension, health – impacts of AI, such as data centre resistance movements will be followed. Last, the researchers will visit data centres and speak with people working to reduce their environmental costs, discussing the promises and limits of those efforts.

Is your health affected by AI’s environmental impacts? Are you a journalist, politician, or lawyer working on the topic? Are you a health expert, or a data center expert? We would love to include your views in our study! Please reach out to Theresa, our study coordinator, to contribute your story to our data set: tcw61@cam.ac.uk