An AI Article Not Really About AI
Let me start by saying this: I’m not here to tell you AI is good or bad. There is enough of that going around already. I’m not handing out pitchforks or party favors. I’m not promoting tech tools or asking you to rage against them.
I’m here because I’ve noticed something missing from all those other conversations.
I have been seeing a ton of energy surrounding the use of AI in grant work lately. I think both conversations - the critiques and the promotion - are necessary. For me, I have been pretty jazzed about some of the use cases I’ve found for strategic and intentional AI use that really do lead to some measurable benefits in my grant work. But, at the same time, I can’t ignore the reality that AI consumes massive amounts of energy and water, perpetuates human bias, and is unfolding faster than our policies or ethics can keep pace (Are the machines really taking over??). All of our choices matter and they need to be informed.
So here’s MY question to throw into the AI conversation:
Where is that same scrutiny and critique when it comes to the harm of other industries we participate in every single day?
As a society, we are raising reasonable concerns about AI’s data usage and resource consumption, but we still throw birthday parties with wasteful plastic trinkets, fly across the country for weekend getaways, and stock our closets with cheaply made clothes we will only wear for a short time. And don’t even get me started on the advertising industry, which spends nearly a trillion dollars a year convincing us to buy things we don’t need (often at the expense of the planet, our wallets, and our mental health).
I have been wondering how all this consumption really compares across industries. To put things into perspective, here’s a quick snapshot of how AI stacks up against a few other industries that impact our planet and our psyches. I’ve even included a (subjective) column for how necessary each industry is to human life, and whether we, as individuals, can make better choices within them.
Environmental Impact by Industry
(Note: Gt = gigatonnes = 1 billion tons; Mt = megatonnes = 1 million tons. Everything is approximate based on a variety of sources.)
A Rant About Advertising
While we’re talking about industries that shape our behaviors and quietly eat the planet for breakfast, can we take a moment to talk about advertising?
Advertising is a nearly $850 billion global industry. That’s billion with a B. And what does that kind of money get us?
Billboards that block skylines
Pop-ups that interrupt every article we try to read
Fast food toys, branded squishy balls, mousepads, and conference swag we didn’t ask for
Multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercials
Data extraction and “targeted” suggestions to make us buy more
Emails… So. Many. Emails
We’re talking about billions of marketing emails sent daily, many of which are deleted within seconds (or worse, opened, skimmed, and then deleted).
Even email advertising has an environmental impact. Every digital message requires energy: servers, transmission, and storage. It adds up. One UK study estimated that if every adult in Britain sent one fewer “thank you” email a day, the country could reduce carbon emissions by 16,000 tons a year. Imagine if ad blasts were limited.
That’s just digital! Printed flyers, direct mail, oversized holiday catalogs, promotional packaging, and inflatable arm-waving tube men all leave a trail of waste, emissions, and microplastic glitter in their wake.
And for what?
So we’ll buy more stuff we don’t need, shipped in boxes we don’t want, padded with materials we can’t recycle, arriving just in time for us to move on to the next thing to buy.
Advertising is literally built to fuel consumption, and yet somehow it dodges the ethical spotlight we reserve for newer industries like AI. If we’re going to talk about influence, bias, and manipulation, advertising deserves a front-row seat at that conversation.
Make Our Choices Matter (In a good way)
Now, this isn’t a call to despair. I’m not asking anyone to live off-grid in a burlap sack (though that might actually be the answer to a lot of our societal problems). I’m just inviting a little more honesty into our participation in the industries and conversations around them.
As someone who works in the realm of philanthropy and funding strategy, I’ve seen how we wrap moral weight around certain things (like AI) while ignoring entire systems that were harmful long before anyone ever chatted with ChatGPT. I don’t think AI has introduced any new forms of harm. It’s just more of the same, except faster, flashier, and a lot of unknowns. The extractive patterns, the bias baked into systems, the environmental cost…they’ve been with us all along. We should be thinking about ALL industries in the same way we have been thinking about AI recently: critically, contextually, and with a firm demand for accountability. Tech doesn’t get a pass, but it also shouldn’t be the sole scapegoat.
What if we took a more holistic view of our consumption, with less panic over one tool and more balanced trade-offs overall?
Use an AI tool for a year to streamline your workflows? Cool. Maybe skip buying new clothes that year, or go all in on local second-hand shops.
Subscribe to a few digital platforms? Great. Offset that by reducing air travel or skipping the next “new phone” cycle or two.
Enjoy the convenience of online shopping? Who doesn’t? Maybe cut back on single-use plastics or party favors that end up in the trash ten minutes after the celebration.
If you are someone who feels deeply about the harms of AI machines and companies. Don’t let others talk you into compromising your values. AI is definitely all around you and built into many things, but you don’t have to willingly invest in things that make you feel bad about your participation in something you don’t agree with. That being said, it is important to understand that a tech gap exists in the nonprofit sector, which definitely hinders innovation and efficiency, as found in recent survey commissioned by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
If you are pro-AI and happily promoting its benefits, take a little time to fully understand what impact your usage has on the world around you. Use tools responsibly and efficiently. Lean into transparency and accountability in your work and encourage others to do the same. Look into ways to offset the environmental impact you have and openly share the good side with the bad.
If you are on the fence about joining the AI bandwagon, pause and learn. Hear both sides. Understand the pros and cons. Make informed choices that are guided by the desire to increase benefits while limiting harm.
For all of us, AI is one of many modern-day marvels that come with all kinds of consequences. Let’s not forget about the rest of our consumption just because AI is the new, easy target!
One person making one choice doesn’t ripple very far. But all of us making more conscious choices can change the world!
**If you wondered if AI was used to create this article, the answer is yes. AI was used to help pull the data in the table and to help review and edit the article. To be mindful of my AI usage, I try to limit the number of chats, prompt effectively, and donate to organizations working toward ethical technology and reducing harm done to the environment.