Intro (00:00):

Welcome to The Taylor Ten. A fast-paced, 10 minute deep dive into the minds of those shaking up the marketing world, bringing you the sharpest insights, boldest ideas and breakthrough trends driving the industry forward. So tune in, get inspired, and stay ahead.

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Amanda (00:17):

Hi, I'm Amanda Diet and welcome to The Taylor Ten. Today I'm joined by Dr. Lucy McClain to learn as much as I can about the conscientious use of AI in just 10 minutes.

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(00:27):

I had the privilege of taking a sustainability class with Lucy while I was at Penn State University, and the structure of that class typically followed doom and gloom on Tuesdays while we delved into the issue itself. But then we followed it up with some light at the end of the tunnel on Thursdays when we dove into ways to combat that issue. And I'm hoping that today we can offer some of that light to listeners who, like myself, are hyper aware of the environmental impact of ai, but still recognize some of those efficiencies that the technology can offer people in the workplace. Lucy, do we think that we can do it today?

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Dr. Lucy McClain (01:01):

Gosh, we will try. I mean, you and I talked on the phone to set up this meeting. We talked for more than 10 minutes, so we'll have to really reign ourselves in here. And that's mostly me.

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Amanda (01:13):

I agree. I agree with you there. But to get to the meat of it all exactly like you said, I just have one question for you today. What should someone ask themselves when considering using AI, either in the workplace or in their personal lives, to kind of help stem some of those environmental impacts?

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Dr. Lucy McClain (01:31):

It's complex whether or not we should be using it or shouldn't be using it. And I think that question to ourselves is compounded when we are faced with the reality of the environmental impacts of ai. I think that the environmental impacts for AI are not unique to ai. And that's something that we also need to keep in mind. For those of us who have gas powered vehicles, we are using oil to power that and that oil is coming from the earth. If we have electric vehicles and we're charging them at a gas station, probably we're also pulling from the electricity field that also is powered by oil most often. So AI is also one of those things that, yeah, I use a lot of electricity, a lot of energy, and it's probably coming from oil-based reserves, but we do so many other things in our lives that also are requiring this amount of energy.

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(02:34):

Ai, I feel like it's not really unique, but it is now becoming such a prevalent tool in our society that I think we're starting to see the, oh, wow, okay. It is using, it's just another thing that's a pulling from the power grid, another thing that's using a lot of energy. And then we think about the water usage and it's using so much water and it's also creating more data centers in rural areas. So taking up that natural landscape space to have more places for these big machines to operate. And I think it's the demand that we now have to use these machines. That is, I think, calling into question, do we really need to use it for all these things that our brains theoretically could be doing? And yeah, it's a really tough thing because it does make our lives more efficient or more convenient, and I think that's another piece of our society that we just become so accustomed to finding shortcuts and easy ways to do things to work more efficiently.

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(03:41):

And I dunno for what I guess is sometimes the question to make more money, to have more time off. I don't know. I think it's almost a philosophical sort of question. Are we working more efficiently so that we can now have more on our plates? I've had some conversations with colleagues where it's like, oh, if I use AI and I work more efficiently, I have more time theoretically for myself. But someone said, I think it's going to be actually, we're going to give you more work because the thought is that you can be more efficient with your time. And I'm like, oh, I don't like that. Just being mindful of how often we're using these machines is really necessary. And like you said, there's people that are already thinking about shortcuts for having prompts that aren't going to generate as much power, so to speak.

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(04:34):

I think for me, the thing that I maybe worry about the most is the physical data centers that seem to be popping up. And it's sort of reminds me of the fracking movement in Pennsylvania a little bit with the companies that were coming in and saying, well, we'll buy your land and you'll benefit from it financially. But then it ends up that the water quality really became very poor in a lot of these communities. But the fracking companies got what they needed and moved on, and there's scars left in the landscape. A lot of 'em did do some tree replantings and that's great. But I think about these new data centers that are going in and using quite a bit of natural land with the excuse that it'll be helpful for the local taxes in these areas. And we'll be giving back to the communities.

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(05:31):

And from some students that I've interacted with that hasn't actually really actualized itself. There's not a lot of revenue that's coming back into the communities. And so I sometimes worry that I feel like it's another way for these companies to make a profit to the detriment of the environment. And we're like, we're already all in. These places are going up really fast without much time for all of us to kind of catch up and figure out what's happening. But I think that's society today too. We're all just moving so fast before we, and seeing the efficiency and the convenience and the help that it provides us in our workplaces without pausing to sort of think about the overall impact. And that's really what sustainability is. We talked about that in class, and I still talk about that in class, is thinking about the whole cradle to grave and systems thinking, if we do this thing, if we go down this road, what are the ripple effects of it? And I just feel like with ai, it's immediately seen as such an efficient use and such an efficient tool that we haven't really paused to really understand the potential detriments to the environment that could be even worse as they continue to grow.

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Amanda (06:47):

So I think what can people ask themselves before they're using the technology? It's like, are you having this technology? Do all of your thinking for you? Are you taking the creativity out of the work that you're doing and therefore limiting yourself because you're not able to think of new ideas and new concepts. And then also, if you can answer those questions and you decide that using AI is still beneficial to your workflow or to the project at hand, how can you prompt it in a way that it's going to not only be efficient for you, but also be efficient in terms of energy usage? And kind of that question of should I overly prompt the engine so that it doesn't have to do all of these reiterations and it doesn't have to continue to suck as much energy as it would if you had to keep on asking it to do more work for you?

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Dr. Lucy McClain (07:38):

Yeah. Maybe one of the consensus that we have come to is that it's like ai, colon, everything, moderation, because that really, it applies to so many things in life. It's in moderation. I think sometimes sustainability and climate change, advocates sort of get a bad rap for being like, you can't do anything. You have to dial back on everything and live this life of complete off the grid simplicity in order to make a difference, and that's absolutely not true. Again, we're on Zoom, have this conversation, I drive a car and all these things, but it's being mindful of how much you're using, whatever it is, ai, your tv, electricity in your house, your car, all these things. So it's another thing that's in moderation. Again, more awareness, more education, more conversations with colleagues. Building awareness is I think, the way to go and there will be solutions. There will be ways to be more cognizant of our impact and strategies to minimize it as well. I'm confident of that.

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Amanda (08:42):

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. Thanks, Amanda.