Data Ecofeminism

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is driving significant environmental impacts. The rapid development and deployment of larger algorithmic models consumes substantially more energy than traditional models, contributing to rising carbon emissions, water withdrawal, and e-waste generation. To mitigate these impacts, big tech companies are developing different strategies such as turning to nuclear energy to meet the demand for GenAI electricity and avoid carbon emissions, an approach that could have profound social and environmental implications beyond carbon reduction.This paper proposes a critical rethinking of GenAI’s proliferation through an ecofeminist framing, which has historically interrogated the role of science and technology in the context of gender and environmental justice. To do so, it introduces seven data ecofeminist principles delineating a pathway for developing technological and just transition alternatives within the AI research context, emphasising a critical examination of this technology’s role in the current socio-ecological crisis. The paper calls for an urgent reassessment of the GenAI innovation race, advocating for ecological and feminist technological projects that prioritise and respect life, people, and the planet.