As new technology continues to expand its footprint across society, some researchers are raising questions about the potential social and environmental impact of AI.
The University of Virginia’s School of Data Science is partnering with Tamara Kneese and the Data and Society Research Institute to examine the social and environmental impact of AI.
The National Science Foundation recently awarded the project a two-year, $300,000 grant.
Working with the Data and Society Research Institute, Hicks and Reia will examine what effects large data centres that are built by AI companies have on the physical environment and community life in the areas in which they reside.
Concerns raised about the social and environmental impact of AI
While some AI developers are assessing the other possible impacts of this infrastructure, other concerns have received comparatively little attention, including those related to electronic waste and land, energy, and water use.
The research team will work directly with affected communities to help better understand the social and environmental impact of AI and ensure that their views are being heard and accounted for by governments as they formulate AI regulations and policies.
Using participatory methods, the project team will conduct interviews with stakeholders, organise workshops, and conduct pilot studies.
These activities aim to develop frameworks for assessing AI’s impact on the environment and society based on the experiences and knowledge of those most affected.
Ensuring the responsible deployment of new technologies
The grant is part of NSF’s Responsible Design and Deployment of Technologies programme.
This initiative is providing more than $18m of support to 44 multidisciplinary, multi-sector research teams across the country.
This project will build on work Hicks and Reia, the lead researchers, have done in recent years.
Hicks, who joined the School of Data Science in 2023, co-organised a conference this summer with UVA history professor Erik Linstrum, where experts from a variety of fields in academia and industry submitted papers and shared their research on lessons from history that can guide our current approaches to dealing with the social and environmental impact of AI.
A follow-up virtual conference, which will be open to the public, is planned for 6 December.
Reia, who came to the School of Data Science in 2021, also serves as faculty co-lead for the Karsh Institute’s Digital Technology for Democracy Lab.
Earlier this year, UVA’s Environmental Institute announced it would fund a project co-led by Reia exploring environmental and digital rights issues raised by the incorporation of big data systems into automobiles.
