Toward Responsible AI Use: Considerations for Sustainability Impact Assessment

TL;DR

This paper introduces the ESG Digital and Green Index (DGI), a dashboard tool designed to assess and promote sustainable and responsible AI development by evaluating environmental, societal, and governance impacts.

Contribution

It presents a novel index and dashboard for quantifying AI's sustainability impact, integrating environmental, societal, and governance considerations for stakeholders.

Findings

DGI effectively monitors resource use and societal impact.

The index incentivizes alignment with SDGs.

Methodology has limitations discussed in the paper.

Abstract

As AI/ML models, including Large Language Models, continue to scale with massive datasets, so does their consumption of undeniably limited natural resources, and impact on society. In this collaboration between AI, Sustainability, HCI and legal researchers, we aim to enable a transition to sustainable AI development by enabling stakeholders across the AI value chain to assess and quantitfy the environmental and societal impact of AI. We present the ESG Digital and Green Index (DGI), which offers a dashboard for assessing a company's performance in achieving sustainability targets. This includes monitoring the efficiency and sustainable use of limited natural resources related to AI technologies (water, electricity, etc). It also addresses the societal and governance challenges related to AI. The DGI creates incentives for companies to align their pathway with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The value, challenges and limitations of our methodology and findings are discussed in the paper.