The Environmental Footprint of Generative AI: Balancing Innovation with Sustainability
Abstract
While Generative AI unlocks new frontiers in creativity and automation, its growing energy demands raise concerns about sustainability. This paper quantifies the environmental impact of training and deploying large-scale GenAI models, focusing on carbon emissions, water consumption, and electronic waste. We analyze data from leading AI labs and propose energy-efficient architectures, model compression techniques, and green AI practices. The study also introduces an “AI Sustainability Index” to benchmark eco-friendly model development.
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