Scientific Paper · 2024-09-03
The Environmental Impacts of AI
AI's lifecycle consumes resources and emits greenhouse gases, requiring sustainable solutions.
Scientific papers
Research papers and scholarly literature on impacts, applications, and methods.
Browse all 527 records →527Public records
521With a publication date
527With provisional topic labels
509Source URLs checked
What this collection can—and cannot—tell you
A paper listing is not a quality assessment. Peer review and findings require source-level confirmation.
Source: the public Scientific Paper sheet in Nate’s Resource Hub. Snapshot: 2026-11-01. Records remain linked to their original rows. Classification is proposed from existing metadata, not a fresh review of full texts.
Open the source spreadsheet ↗ · Read the codebookExplore by environmental topic
Cross-cutting sustainability · 152Governance and society · 121Research tools and geospatial methods · 13Education and skills · 0Energy and electricity · 65Climate and greenhouse gases · 92Water · 56Materials and critical minerals · 3E-waste and circularity · 3Land use, heat, and noise · 0Air pollution · 0Biodiversity and ecosystems · 38Oceans and coasts · 51Agriculture and food · 17Weather, hazards, and adaptation · 88Built environment and infrastructure · 14Transport and logistics · 0
Inside the collection
A sample in source order, not a recommendation or ranking.
Scientific Paper · 2019-06-05
Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP
Training large neural networks improves NLP accuracy but requires significant computational resources, leading to high financial and environmental costs.
Scientific Paper · 2024-10-15
Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment?
Generative AI models consume significantly more energy and emit more carbon than task-specific models, raising concerns about their environmental impact.
Scientific Paper · 2024-03-27
The Climate and Sustainability Implications of Generative AI
The unchecked growth of generative AI increases energy demand and environmental impact, requiring a sustainability-focused approach beyond efficiency improvements.
Scientific Paper · 2023-11-30
How Much Water Does AI Consume? The Public Deserves to Know
AI drives scientific progress and business growth but depends on vast data and computational resources, raising sustainability concerns.
Scientific Paper · 2025-03-26
Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models
AI models have a significant yet overlooked water footprint, requiring transparency and holistic sustainability efforts alongside carbon reduction.