[incomingpain]

>I keep getting told by friends not to use AI because it is destroying the environment.

I side with them. If you're environmentally conscious you absolutely cant support AI. The amount of energy and the backing of basically every AI is fossil fuels.

You should oppose AI use.

[vouaobrasil]

Let's not also forget material use. According to [1], "Global AI demand is expected to consume 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water by 2027, surpassing Denmark’s total annual water withdrawal of 4-6 billion cubic meters." And there's also all the mining required for the materials to build the computers, and the fossil fuels shipping them and making them in the first place in places like Taiwan.

Reference:

1. https://unric.org/en/artificial-intelligence-how-much-energy...