Understanding AI with Data & Society | The Environmental Costs of AI Are Surging – What Now?

Researcher Tamara Kneese speaks with environmental justice researcher Sanjana Paul and critical social scientist Jasmine McNealy about the environmental toll AI development is taking on local water supplies, energy systems, and communities around the world.

This event will take place online and in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor

Artificial intelligence technologies run on powerful computers that require vast amounts of energy, water, and critical minerals. As AI use grows, so does its environmental footprint. Yet there is little consensus on how to assess and address the technology’s toll on the climate before irreparable damage is done. How can we understand the impact AI data centers have on communities and the environment? How can we ensure that communities are able to use empirical data about those impacts to fight back?

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

To join the event online | Whether you’re attending in person or online, you must register with your email address. You will need a device with audio and/or video and an internet/cellular connection to view the livestream.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Tamara Kneese is the director of Data & Society’s Climate, Technology, and Justice program. Previously, she led Data & Society’s Algorithmic Impacts Lab (AIMLab). Tamara’s research juxtaposes histories of computing and automation with ethnographies of platform labor. Her first book, Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond, was published by Yale University Press in 2023.

Jasmine McNealy is an attorney, critical public interest technologist, and social scientist who studies emerging media & technology with a view toward influencing law and policy. An internationally recognized scholar, her research is interdisciplinary, centered at the intersection of media, technology, policy, and law. Of particular focus are the areas of privacy, surveillance, and data governance and emphasizing technological and the impacts on marginalized and vulnerable communities. She is a professor at the University of Florida where she directs the Infrastructure for Communities, Ecology for Data Hub (ICED Hub), which annually hosts the Rural x AI + Policy Workshop. She is also Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Sanjana Paul is an engineer, environmental justice researcher, and systems thinker working at the intersection of infrastructure, climate, and technology. She is a PhD student at MIT, where her research focuses on renewable energy, energy justice, and the electric grid. She is the co-founder of Rooted Futures Lab, a research and action collective advancing environmental justice in technology, and Earth Hacks, a nonprofit harnessing hackathons as a form of climate action. Her work has ranged from atmospheric science software engineering at NASA to passing decarbonization policy at the local level. She holds a BS in electrical engineering and physics, and a Master’s in City Planning from MIT.