The statement, ‘artificial intelligence is a thneed’ has been in circulation within the media. As someone who thoroughly enjoys watching The Lorax, this statement stuck with me.

Dr. Seuss describes the thneed as a versatile garment made from truffula trees. The songs in the movie describe that “everybody needs a thneed.” It can be used for everything from a hat to helping people exercise.

Later in the story though, the characters realize that it may not have been a great idea to produce thneeds. The trees that were used to produce thneeds were gone, and naturally this hurt the environment. We can learn a lot from The Lorax about what the consequences may be when producing goods and services. Certain items may hurt the environment to produce, or hurt the environment after they’re produced, or both.

Now, how does this relate to our current situation?

Artificial intelligence — better known as AI — has had a boom in our society. Everyone knows what it is and how it can benefit their daily life. It has gotten so popular that schools all over America and even Amherst High School has come up with an AI policy regarding when and/or how students can use it.

Due to the popularity of AI, it has helped with simple jobs to be completed that are boring to most people. It has also helped businesses uncover patterns and help people make simple decisions. The craziest part is that AI also helped me find simple facts about AI. Google AI gave me facts and I was able to find sources to fact-check those facts. It’s crazy to see how quickly this became part of our daily lives that it’s hard to escape it. It’s also hard not to appreciate it, because it can be very helpful.

AI isn’t all fun and games though. In the next 10 years, AI is predicted to take over jobs regarding data entry, customer service, and even some basic accounting. This is something that could be seen as good or bad for our economy. This would be good to lower costs for businesses and therefore could lower prices for consumers. On the other hand, people losing their jobs will make consumers have less financial stability to spend in the market. This would raise unemployment rates drastically as more jobs are replaced by AI.

There are also many aspects to AI that are and will continue to harm our environment. The United Nations are set to have a meeting this December. One of the key topics? How AI is affecting our environment.

Data centers that house AI equipment have high amounts of energy consumption and in return release a lot of electronic waste. AI also consumes a lot of water and rare minerals from our Earth. The minerals that are mined for AI are mined in unsustainable ways. AI is a very new concept so there isn’t a lot of data regarding what the impacts will be. The data that we do have access to is highly alarming.

So what can be done about this?

According to the United Nations, there are a few standards and regulations that can be put in place by governments. Their goal isn’t to get rid of AI but to regulate the use because of how it affects our environment. Regulations about businesses recording the amount of environmental damage they’re contributing because of AI is just one reason mentioned. Ideally, we could go green. By turning green, we will use materials to power AI that are safe for the environment.

AI isn’t everything we had hoped. As everything else in the world, there are consequences. The consequences of our actions with the use of AI could be similar to the consequences faced in The Lorax. In the end, AI is a thneed.