How does AI affect climate change?

AI has both pros and cons toward climate change as many large models require more computational power using more electricity.

AI has taken over our daily lives. AI and climate change the world’s two biggest problems, and one can be used to help the other. To start, AI can help forecast natural disasters and help with climate modeling helping us to mitigate and adapt. Climate modeling is used for advanced projections and forecasts to see what our future will look like. It can also be used to show what we can do in certain regions to mitigate GHG emissions. To help tackle climate change and energy management, AI can help us with optimizing energy grids and maximizing efficiency.

How does AI negatively affect us? Large AI models use more electricity as the IEA says that AI could be responsible for 4% of global energy use by 2026. The hardware components may also require rare earth materials requiring mining destroying wildlife and habitats.

AI will be crucial to tackle climate change through energy management and generative AI can help us through forecasting and climate modeling.