The growing demand for AI has led to a rapid expansion of data centers that consume a lot of energy, which affects the environment through the increase in carbon emissions and water consumption. Although much attention has been paid to the growing environmental footprint of AI, The public health burden, a hidden cost of AI, has greatly overlook. At least until now.
The AI life cycle, from the manufacture of chips to the operation of the data center, significantly degrades air quality through air pollutants emissionslike fine particles, which substantially affects public health. That is the conclusion of a study published in Arxiv and led by scientists from the University of California.
“Our findings reveal that the training of a model of the similar to flame3.1 can produce atmospheric pollutants equivalent to more than 10,000 round trip trips between Los Angeles and New York City – More than the distance between Madrid and Moscow, explains Adam Wierman, leader of the study, in a statement -. The total load for the public health of the United States Data Centers In 2030 it is valued at more than 20,000 million dollars a yeartwice the manufacture of steel in the country. In addition, public health costs unequally affect economically disadvantaged communities, where home load could be 200 times greater than in less affected communities. ”
The authors also discovered that air pollution derived from AI disproportionately affects certain low -income communities, partly due to their proximity to electricity plants or the backup generators of data processing centers. To this we must add that pollution crosses borders very easily and a data center in a given site, can contaminate a much broader region. In Spain there are more than 140 data centers that collaborate in the processing of AI systemsamong other tasks.
“In some areas, the public health cost associated with the centers of IA processing can exceed what technological companies pay for taxes -Add the authors -. If you have relatives with asthma or other health conditions, air pollution of these data centers could be affected at this time. It is a public health problem that we must approach urgently. ”