If AI is burning the planet, should you be using it?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly being adopted across the cultural sector. And with potentially substantial savings of both time and money, why not?

At last year’s Arts Marketing Association Digital Marketing Day, Rachael Easton (Director, Regional Growth at Tessitura) asked who was using AI in their role. Most hands shot up. As well as being a hot topic at conferences, AI is also now included in a lot of digital project briefs – alongside the need for a website to have a minimal impact on the environment.

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to the use of AI. Along with the positives come numerous downsides – the societal impact, built-in biases, ownership over intellectual property and, not least, the large environmental impact.

Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone. And there’s data to suggest that running ChatGPT’s data centres could be using more electricity than the whole of Sweden.

With this in mind, can we continue to use AI and care for the planet at the same time?

The sector's role in tackling the climate crisis

The cultural sector, perhaps better than any other sector, tends towards making good ethical choices. In every area of work we do, everyone in the sector is trying their best to be fair, inclusive, kind, and supportive. From having some of the most inclusive hiring practices to opening their doors to local communities when energy bills go up, the sector is a good place.

And sustainability is high up there in the sector’s priorities. Arts Council England, Arts Council Wales and Creative Scotland all support organisations in reducing their impact on the planet. Across the sector organisations are reducing their carbon footprint from ditching single use items in their cafes to carefully curating tours to reduce travel.

At Supercool we’ve worked hard on upskilling the sector and providing resources that help people understand the environmental impact of their websites, and this seems to be working. More and more people are coming to us for advice and support in reducing the carbon footprint of their websites, and we’re seeing it as a requirement in more new project briefs.

So, if we’re on the right track when it comes to the climate crisis, how has AI, a technology that’s pretty terrible for the planet, snuck in?

The AI bug

The cultural sector isn’t known for being the first to adopt new technologies, although this is improving and the adoption of AI is a sign of this. Even if your organisation doesn’t have a full AI policy or strategy in place, chances are you or your colleagues are making use of AI already.

Even if you aren’t intentionally using AI, it’s likely that most of the software and platforms you use have already adopted AI. AI is used by Google and Meta and your organisation’s accounting software and EPOS system are probably using AI too. Chances are the organisations you partner with, from digital agencies to CRM system suppliers are using AI in some form too.

The fact that it has become so difficult to avoid AI means adoption has been quite organic. Combining the perceived quick wins, an overworked and short staffed sector that is constantly being told to adopt more digital technologies means we’ve normalised it pretty quickly. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also not great, either.

So, should you be using AI?

There are strong arguments for and against using AI.

Rather than sticking with one side or another, it’s important to balance the positive and negative. AI is, like all technology, a tool. It has some great benefits and is helping solve the climate crisis and challenges in medicine, and there's a real opportunity for it to be a positive force in the sector. But when a tool has a negative cost, it’s important to consider that cost alongside any potential benefit.

We know AI’s pretty terrible for the planet, but we also know the sector is under-resourced and you need to achieve more with less. If using AI helps you sell more tickets, deliver more community engagement work and support more new artists, should we avoid it at all costs? Probably not.

So, before you dive in head first, or walk away never to look back, it’s important to do a bit of research so you can make an informed decision about your and your organisation’s use of AI.

How to make an informed decision

Whether you want to review the use of AI as an individual, or for your organisation, here are three things you can do now to make sure you’re reducing your impact on the planet whilst not necessarily ruling out benefitting from using AI:

1. Know where AI is being used

Audit your platforms and check which are using AI. (You might want to assume all are, and find the ones that aren’t!) Once you have this knowledge, you can choose to move to new platforms, turn off AI features, or embrace it. A good example of this is ditching Google search and moving to Ecosia. Currently each time you search Google it’s submitting an AI request, and while Ecosia haven’t ruled out the use of AI, they are approaching it with the planet in mind.

2. Collect AI policies from suppliers

Ask your suppliers and partners for their AI policies. This will kick start the conversation with your suppliers about how AI is used in relation to your organisation, and help you make informed decisions about partners and suppliers. Keep in mind that AI is still new, so just by asking for a policy you may be encouraging other people to make considered choices and review their own use of the technology. This will also help you understand where and how AI is being used to support your organisation, even if you aren’t directly using it.

3. Ask yourself if the benefit is worth the cost

If you’re using AI to help with tasks, make an effort to ask yourself what is the benefit of using AI? And is it worth the cost? It’ll be difficult to measure this accurately, but if you feel asking ChatGPT for some support will save you an hour, what positive thing will you be able to do with that extra hour? This will get you into the habit of questioning whether you should use AI, or if the more positive outcome would be to complete a task manually. This approach is also likely to help you become more efficient at using AI, reducing the number of prompts, and ensuring you get something of value from the process.

Prepare to change your mind

There will probably be situations and applications where, on balance, you’ve decided that using AI will do more harm than good. And others where the benefits of using AI outweigh its downsides. But, with such a new, fast-growing, and ever-changing technology, those scales could tip either way, at any moment.

Because AI has the potential to have an enormous impact on the world it’s important not only to be conscious of the impact of your decisions, but to remain flexible and open-minded.

Be ready and willing to update your current policies and working practices based on new information. Be open to conversations about AI – its benefits and its harms. Plan-in regular reviews of your use of AI. Remain aware of the wider impact of your past choices.

And be ready for change. Whether that change means adding more AI into your day-to-day workflows, deciding that the harms of AI outweigh its benefits, or – most likely – a frequently-changing mixture of both.

Leading the way

The cultural sector's ability to deliver important value for society whilst making good ethical choices is rare. There’s an opportunity here for the sector to lead the way when it comes to the use of AI. We can be the individuals and organisations who set the bar for the ethical use of AI. But to do this, we each need to take a step back, reassess, and make considered choices.