Tackling "AI against sustainability"
Pith reviewed 2026-06-26 06:14 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
Current debates miss how AI applications in fossil fuel extraction and advertising actively harm the environment, and a three-pronged strategy of regulation, industry commitment, and stakeholder dialogue can address this gap.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
The paper establishes that debates on AI and sustainability are dichotomised between the environmental impact of AI systems themselves and AI's potential for environmental benefit, overlooking 'AI against sustainability' as the negative environmental consequences from applications in sectors such as fossil fuel extraction and targeted advertising. It calls for a systemic understanding that separates AI as an object from its application and proposes addressing the issue through strengthened regulation, proactive self-commitment by industry, and constructive dialogue among stakeholders to move beyond isolated actions.
What carries the argument
The distinction between AI as an object and its application, which isolates 'AI against sustainability' as the negative environmental effects from specific uses that existing debates overlook.
If this is right
- Regulation must expand to cover AI applications that increase environmental harm rather than only addressing the systems' own energy use.
- Industry must adopt upfront commitments to avoid deploying AI in sectors that exacerbate emissions or resource depletion.
- Stakeholder dialogue across disciplines becomes necessary to identify and close blind spots in how AI gets used.
- Sustainability efforts for AI must shift from isolated technical fixes to collaborative, application-focused strategies.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- Frameworks for responsible AI would need to treat environmental harm from deployment as a distinct evaluation category alongside technical efficiency.
- Environmental impact assessments could become standard for AI projects in high-risk sectors such as energy and marketing.
- This perspective connects to broader questions of how digital tools amplify physical resource extraction and consumption patterns.
Load-bearing premise
The premise that existing debates remain strictly divided into two camps and systematically miss the negative environmental effects of AI when applied in sectors like fossil fuel extraction and targeted advertising.
What would settle it
A comprehensive review of recent AI-sustainability literature that finds substantial coverage of negative applications in fossil fuel or advertising sectors would undermine the claim of a crucial overlooked gap.
read the original abstract
Current debates on AI and sustainability are dichotomised, tending to focus on either the environmental impact of AI systems themselves ("sustainability of AI") or AI's potential for environmental benefit ("AI for sustainability"). This perspective highlights a crucial gap: "AI against sustainability" - the negative environmental consequences stemming from the application of AI technologies. While AI can offer solutions, its use in sectors like fossil fuel extraction or targeted advertising can exacerbate environmental harms, often overlooked in existing discussions. We argue for a systemic understanding of these impacts, distinguishing between AI as an object and its application, and propose a three-pronged approach to tackle "AI against sustainability" by (a) strengthened regulation, (b) proactive self-commitment by industry, and (c) constructive dialogue among stakeholders. Addressing the blind spots of "AI against sustainability" requires moving beyond isolated actions and fostering collaboration across disciplines to ensure truly more sustainable AI.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The manuscript is a perspective paper arguing that debates on AI and sustainability are dichotomized into 'sustainability of AI' (environmental impacts of AI systems) versus 'AI for sustainability' (AI's potential benefits), overlooking 'AI against sustainability'—negative environmental effects from AI applications in sectors such as fossil fuel extraction and targeted advertising. It calls for distinguishing AI as an object from its applications and proposes a three-pronged approach of strengthened regulation, proactive industry self-commitment, and constructive stakeholder dialogue to address the gap.
Significance. If the framing and proposal hold, the paper could usefully broaden AI sustainability discourse by surfacing application-level harms that are rhetorically sidelined, thereby supporting more integrated policy thinking across disciplines. Its contribution is conceptual rather than empirical or formal.
major comments (2)
- [Abstract] Abstract: the premise that negative environmental consequences from AI applications are 'often overlooked in existing discussions' is load-bearing for the identification of the gap and the subsequent proposal, yet the text provides no citations or concrete examples of debates that systematically exclude these cases.
- [Abstract] Abstract: the three-pronged approach is presented as the solution without any discussion of mechanisms, precedents, feasibility constraints, or differentiation from existing AI governance initiatives, which undercuts the actionability of the central prescriptive claim.
minor comments (1)
- The distinction between 'AI as an object' and 'its application' is invoked but left at a high level of generality; a brief illustrative example would improve clarity.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for the constructive comments on our perspective paper. We address the two major comments point by point below and indicate where revisions will be made to strengthen the manuscript.
read point-by-point responses
-
Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the premise that negative environmental consequences from AI applications are 'often overlooked in existing discussions' is load-bearing for the identification of the gap and the subsequent proposal, yet the text provides no citations or concrete examples of debates that systematically exclude these cases.
Authors: We agree that the claim requires explicit support to be fully convincing. In the revised manuscript we will add concrete examples and citations to debates and reports (e.g., IPCC-related AI assessments and major AI ethics surveys) that focus exclusively on the environmental footprint of AI systems or on beneficial applications while omitting application-level harms in sectors such as fossil-fuel extraction and targeted advertising. This will better substantiate the identified gap. revision: yes
-
Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the three-pronged approach is presented as the solution without any discussion of mechanisms, precedents, feasibility constraints, or differentiation from existing AI governance initiatives, which undercuts the actionability of the central prescriptive claim.
Authors: As a perspective paper our proposal is deliberately high-level, yet we accept that greater elaboration would improve actionability. We will revise the body of the manuscript to include brief discussion of precedents (such as provisions in the EU AI Act), illustrative mechanisms for each prong, noted feasibility constraints, and explicit differentiation from or complementarity with existing initiatives such as the Montreal Declaration and voluntary industry codes. These additions will remain within the conceptual scope of the paper. revision: yes
Circularity Check
No significant circularity
full rationale
This is a conceptual perspective paper with no equations, parameters, derivations, or formal claims. The argument distinguishes AI-as-object from AI-as-application and proposes a three-pronged policy approach based on observations about existing debates; none of these steps reduce by construction to internally defined quantities or self-citations. The premise that debates are dichotomised functions as framing rather than a load-bearing derivation. No patterns from the enumerated circularity kinds are present.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
axioms (2)
- domain assumption Current debates on AI and sustainability are dichotomised, tending to focus on either the environmental impact of AI systems themselves or AI's potential for environmental benefit.
- domain assumption AI applications in sectors like fossil fuel extraction or targeted advertising can exacerbate environmental harms.
invented entities (1)
-
AI against sustainability
no independent evidence
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
-
[1]
Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI,
Luccioni, A. S., Strubell, E. & Crawford, K. From Efficiency Gains to Rebound Effects: The Problem of Jevons' Paradox in AI's Polarized Environmental Debate. FAccT '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparen, 76–88; 10.1145/3715275.3732007 (2026)
-
[2]
Strubell, E., Ganesh, A. & McCallum, A. Energy and policy considerations for deep learning in NLP. arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.02243 (2019)
Pith/arXiv arXiv 1906
-
[3]
Dodge, J. et al. Measuring the Carbon Intensity of AI in Cloud Instances. In 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2022)
2022
-
[4]
The carbon impact of artificial intelligence
Dhar, P. The carbon impact of artificial intelligence. Nature Machine Intelligence, 423–425; 10.1038/s42256-020-0219-9 (2020)
-
[5]
Patterson, D. et al. Carbon Emissions and Large Neural Network Training, 2021
2021
-
[6]
Patterson, D. et al. The Carbon Footprint of Machine Learning Training Will Plateau, Then Shrink (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2022)
2022
-
[7]
Zilberman, N. et al. Toward carbon-aware networking (2022)
2022
-
[8]
How to shrink AI's ballooning carbon footprint
Gibney, E. How to shrink AI's ballooning carbon footprint. Nature 607, 648; 10.1038/d41586-022-01983-7 (2022)
-
[9]
& Hilbert, I
Gröger, J., Behrens, F., Gailhofer, P. & Hilbert, I. Environmental impacts of artificial intelligence. Evaluation of current trends and compilation of an overview study for Greenpeace e.V., Hamburg, 2025
2025
-
[10]
Falk, S., Kluge Corrêa, N., Luccioni, S., Biber-Freudenberger, L. & van Wynsberghe, A. From computation to environmental cost the resource burden of artificial intelligence. Commun Earth Environ 7, 397; 10.1038/s43247-026-03537- 5 (2026)
-
[11]
Wu, C. J. et al. Sustainable ai: Environmental implications, challenges and opportunities. Proceedings of Machine Learning and Systems, 795–813 (2022)
2022
-
[12]
Kaack, L. H. et al. Aligning artificial intelligence with climate change mitigation. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 518–527; 10.1038/s41558-022-01377-7 (2022)
-
[13]
Vinuesa, R. et al. The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature communications 11, 233; 10.1038/s41467-019-14108-y (2020)
-
[14]
Stern, N. et al. Green and intelligent: the role of AI in the climate transition. npj Clim. Action 4, 56; 10.1038/s44168-025-00252-3 (2025)
-
[15]
Gohr, C. et al. Artificial intelligence in sustainable development research. Nat Sustain 8, 970–978; 10.1038/s41893-025-01598-6 (2025)
-
[16]
Debnath, R., Tkachenko, N. & Bhattacharyya, M. Enabling people-centric climate action using human-in-the-loop artificial intelligence: a review. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 61, 101482; 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101482 (2025). 9
-
[17]
Cowls, J., Tsamados, A., Taddeo, M. & Floridi, L. The AI gambit: leveraging artificial intelligence to combat climate change-opportunities, challenges, and recommendations. AI & Soc 38, 283–307; 10.1007/s00146-021-01294-x (2023)
-
[18]
Rolnick, D. et al. Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR); 10.1145/3485128 (2022)
-
[19]
Current Forestry Reports , author =
Kulicki, M., Cabo, C., Trzciński, T., Będkowski, J. & Stereńczak, K. Artificial Intelligence and Terrestrial Point Clouds for Forest Monitoring. Curr. For. Rep. 11, 1–19; 10.1007/s40725-024-00234-4 (2025)
-
[20]
Keskes, M. I. & Nita, M. D. Developing an AI Tool for Forest Monitoring: Introducing SylvaMind AI. FWIAFE, 39–54; 10.31926/but.fwiafe.2024.17.66.2.3 (2024)
-
[21]
Hilty, L. M. et al. The relevance of information and communication technologies for environmental sustainability – A prospective simulation study. Environmental Modelling & Software 21, 1618–1629; 10.1016/j.envsoft.2006.05.007 (2006)
-
[22]
Kunkel, S., Schmelzle, F., Niehoff, S. & Beier, G. More sustainable artificial intelligence systems through stakeholder involvement? GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 64–70; 10.14512/gaia.32.S1.10 (2023)
-
[23]
Enabled Emissions: How AI Helps to Supercharge Oil and Gas Production
Global Witness. Enabled Emissions: How AI Helps to Supercharge Oil and Gas Production. Available at https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital- threats/enabled-emissions-how-ai-helps-to-supercharge-oil-and-gas-production/ (2026)
2026
-
[24]
Enabled Emissions Campaign: Aligning Advanced Technology with Climate Science
Enabled Emissions Campaign. Enabled Emissions Campaign: Aligning Advanced Technology with Climate Science. Available at https://www.enabledemissions.com/ (2026)
2026
-
[25]
Freitag, C. et al. The real climate and transformative impact of ICT: A critique of estimates, trends, and regulations. Patterns 2, 100340; 10.1016/j.patter.2021.100340 (2021)
-
[26]
Bieser, J. C. T. & Hilty, L. M. Assessing indirect environmental effects of information and communication technology (ICT): A systematic literature review. Sustainability 10, 2662 (2018)
2018
-
[27]
Oil in the Cloud: How Tech Companies are Helping Big Oil Profit from Climate Destruction
Greenpeace. Oil in the Cloud: How Tech Companies are Helping Big Oil Profit from Climate Destruction. Available at https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/oil-in- the-cloud/ (2019)
2019
-
[28]
Dauvergne, P. Is artificial intelligence greening global supply chains? Exposing the political economy of environmental costs. Review of International Political Economy 29, 696–718; 10.1080/09692290.2020.1814381 (2022)
-
[29]
& Mitra, S
Roussilhe, G., Dromard, B. & Mitra, S. Counting own goals: High-level assessment of the economic relationship between the ICT and the Oil and Gas sectors and its environmental implications. In 2026 International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S)
2026
-
[30]
Mining's next chapter: driving innovation, resource stewardship and global progress
Aguilar, T. Mining's next chapter: driving innovation, resource stewardship and global progress. Available at https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/mining- 10 innovation-resource-stewardship-global-progress/#the-technological- innovations-reshaping-mining%E2%80%99s-future (2025)
2025
-
[31]
Uncharted depths: Navigating the energy security potential of deep-sea mining
Vivoda, V. Uncharted depths: Navigating the energy security potential of deep-sea mining. Journal of Environmental Management 369, 122343; 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122343 (2024)
-
[32]
Energy and AI
IEA. Energy and AI. International Energy Agency, 2025
2025
-
[33]
IEA, I. E. A. Digitalization and Energy. International Energy Agency, 2017
2017
-
[34]
& Raghavendra, S
Wright, D., Igel, C., Samuel, G. & Raghavendra, S. Efficiency is Not Enough: A Critical Perspective of Environmentally Sustainable AI. Preprint, 2023
2023
-
[35]
Alnafrah, I. The Two Tales of AI: A Global assessment of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence from a multidimensional policy perspective. Journal of environmental management 392, 126813; 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126813 (2025)
-
[36]
Bashir, N. et al. The Climate and Sustainability Implications of Generative AI (2024)
2024
-
[37]
Lee, J. W. & Brahmasrene, T. ICT, CO2 emissions and economic growth. Evidence from a panel of ASEAN. Global Economic Review 43, 93–109 (2014)
2014
-
[38]
Climate Change and AI
Global Partnership on AI. Climate Change and AI. Recommendations for Government Action. OECD, 2021
2021
-
[39]
Towards Our Common Digital Future
WBGU. Towards Our Common Digital Future. Flagship Report. WBGU – German Advisory Council on Global Change, 2019
2019
-
[40]
Guston, D. H. Understanding ‘anticipatory governance’. Social studies of science 44, 218–242 (2014)
2014
-
[41]
Anticipatory governance: A tool for climate change adaptation
Quay, R. Anticipatory governance: A tool for climate change adaptation. Journal of the American Planning Association 76, 496–511 (2010)
2010
-
[42]
& Stacewicz, I
Boyd, E., Nykvist, B., Borgström, S. & Stacewicz, I. A. Anticipatory governance for social-ecological resilience. Ambio 44, 149–161 (2015)
2015
-
[43]
Muiderman, K. et al. The anticipatory governance of sustainability transformations: Hybrid approaches and dominant perspectives. Global Environmental Change 73, 102452; 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102452 (2022)
-
[44]
Boyd, M. & Wilson, N. Existential Risks to Humanity Should Concern International Policymakers and More Could Be Done in Considering Them at the International Governance Level. Risk Analysis 40, 2303–2312; 10.1111/risa.13566 (2020)
-
[45]
Berten, J. & Kranke, M. Anticipatory Global Governance: International Organisations and the Politics of the Future. Global Society 36, 155–169; 10.1080/13600826.2021.2021150 (2022)
-
[46]
O’Neill, D. W. & Creutzig, F. A strong sustainability approach to AI development. Nat Mach Intell 8, 642–644; 10.1038/s42256-026-01240-w (2026). 11
-
[47]
Pagallo, U., Ciani Sciolla, J. & Durante, M. The environmental challenges of AI in EU law: lessons learned from the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) with its drawbacks. TG 16, 359–376; 10.1108/TG-07-2021-0121 (2022)
-
[48]
Corporate sustainability reporting
European Commission. Corporate sustainability reporting. EU rules require large companies and listed companies to publish regular reports on the social and environmental risks they face, and on how their activities impact people and the environment. Available at https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and- financial-markets/company-reporting-an...
2023
-
[49]
& Hilbert, I
Gröger, J., Behrens, F., Gailhofer, P. & Hilbert, I. Environmental Impacts of Artificial Intelligence, 2025
2025
-
[50]
Axenbeck, J., Kunkel, S., Blain, J. & Charpentier, F. Between 2010 and 2021, global emissions from digital technologies were largely obscured in greenhouse gas emission accounting standards. Communications Sustainability 1, 25; 10.1038/s44458-025-00022-6 (2026)
-
[51]
& Hacker, P
Alder, N., Ebert, K., Herbrich, R. & Hacker, P. AI, Climate, and Transparency: Operationalising and Improving the AI Act. Journal of European Consumer and Market Law 14 (2025)
2025
-
[52]
Riemens, R. Greenwashing Silicon Valley: The legitimization of green platform capitalism through tech-on-climate discourse. Big Data & Society 12; 10.1177/20539517251389853 (2025)
-
[53]
Turning the tide: Climate action in and against tech
Kneese, T. Turning the tide: Climate action in and against tech. Available at SSRN 6310738 (2025)
2025
-
[54]
Kunkel, S. et al. Leitfaden Grüne IT und Grüne KI: Wie Informationstechnologie und Künstliche Intelligenz grün gestaltet werden können. Discussion Paper. GreenTech Innovation Competition, in press
-
[55]
Penzenstadler, B. et al. The SusA Workshop. Improving sustainability awareness to inform future business process and systems design. Available at https://zenodo.org/record/3676514#.YkFxzC8RpT7 (Zenodo, 2020)
arXiv 2020
-
[56]
H., Borning, A
Friedman, B., Kahn, P. H., Borning, A. & Huldtgren, A. Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems. In Early Engagement and New Technologies, edited by N. Doorn. 1st ed. (Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2013), Vol. 16, pp. 55–95
2013
-
[57]
Systemic and concrete methods and tools to address environmental complexity and rebound effects within a design or decision-making process
Bornes, L. Systemic and concrete methods and tools to address environmental complexity and rebound effects within a design or decision-making process. Université de Toulouse, 2024
2024
-
[58]
& Pahos, N
Polyportis, A. & Pahos, N. Navigating the perils of artificial intelligence: a focused review on ChatGPT and responsible research and innovation. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 1–10 (2024)
2024
-
[59]
Hahn, J., Heyen, N. B. & Lindner, R. Tracing technology assessment internationally—TA activities in 12 countries across the globe. In Technology Assessment in a Globalized World: Facing the Challenges of Transnational Technology Governance (Springer2023), pp. 17–29. 12
-
[60]
& van Wynsberghe, A
Falk, S. & van Wynsberghe, A. Challenging AI for Sustainability: what ought it mean? AI Ethics 4, 1345–1355 (2024)
2024
-
[61]
CODES stakeholders by Shifts and Impact Initiatives
The Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES). CODES stakeholders by Shifts and Impact Initiatives. Available at https://www.codes.global/ (2026)
2026
-
[62]
What is the Coalition? Available at https://www.sustainableaicoalition.org/about/ (2026)
Coalition for Sustainable Artificial Intelligence. What is the Coalition? Available at https://www.sustainableaicoalition.org/about/ (2026)
2026
-
[63]
About Climate Change AI
Climate Change AI. About Climate Change AI. Available at https://www.climatechange.ai/ (2026)
2026
-
[64]
About Us
Partnership on AI. About Us. Available at https://partnershiponai.org/ (2026)
2026
-
[65]
& Nyström, A.-G
Leminen, S., Westerlund, M. & Nyström, A.-G. Living Labs as Open-Innovation Networks. Technology Innovation Management Review, 6–11 (2012)
2012
-
[66]
& Overdiek, A
Harbers, M. & Overdiek, A. Towards a living lab for responsible applied AI. In DRS2022: Bilbao, edited by D. Lockton, et al. (2022)
2022
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.