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Understanding the hidden costs and societal implications of artificial intelligence
AI is transforming every industry—but at what cost? As builders who leverage AI daily, we have a responsibility to understand its full impact. The externalities of artificial intelligence extend far beyond compute costs: energy consumption, labor displacement, algorithmic bias, and the erosion of trust in information itself.
This page isn't anti-AI. We build with AI every day. But informed operators make better decisions. Understanding these costs helps us build more responsibly.
Global AI data centers will consume more electricity than Japan
Data center cooling requirements for AI workloads
Goldman Sachs estimate of jobs affected by AI displacement
Carbon footprint of training a single large language model
The physical infrastructure powering AI has massive environmental costs that are often invisible to end users.
AI automation threatens to reshape employment patterns faster than workers can adapt.
AI systems can encode and amplify societal biases at unprecedented scale.
Deepfakes and synthetic media threaten our ability to trust what we see and hear.
How we approach AI development at Catalyst.
We believe users should understand how AI systems make decisions that affect them.
AI tools should enhance human agency, not replace human judgment on critical decisions.
We advocate for energy-efficient AI and responsible resource consumption.
Your data belongs to you. AI systems should respect data sovereignty.
Follow AI policy developments. Understand the tools you use.
Choose efficient models. Minimize unnecessary compute.
Support policies that promote AI transparency and accountability.
We discuss AI ethics, responsible development, and the future of technology in our community.