Green Translation: AI’s Environmental Impact and the Translation Industry

The growing presence of artificial intelligence in our lives is undeniable. It’s revolutionising all sectors, with its use and influence accelerating across every area of society. One aspect of AI that’s often overlooked is its environmental impact, both positive and negative – it can be used to advance eco-friendly innovations, but it also consumes a great deal of resources. Let’s explore these impacts and why they are significant for the translation industry.

AI technology has fantastic potential to support sustainability if used strategically. Its ability to process large amounts of data can be used to analyse and predict global warming indicators such as melting glaciers, carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere and changing sea levels, as well as contributing to sustainable agriculture, improved waste management and smarter energy grids. However, the training process for AI models is very energy-intensive, requiring enormous amounts of electricity often produced by burning fossil fuels which, as we all know, emits greenhouse gases. An article in the Harvard Business Review predicts that AI’s global energy demand will increase so much that it will exceed the annual electricity consumption of a small country like Belgium by 2026. In addition to producing electronic waste that often contains hazardous substances, AI-related infrastructure also uses large amounts of water which creates a major problem when roughly a quarter of the world’s population don’t have access to clean water. Chile is one example of a country going through a prolonged drought that is further exacerbated by the large number of data centres operating there.  Finding sustainable solutions for these issues is critical. By making changes such as using renewable energy sources like solar farms, developing more energy-efficient algorithms and recycling electronic components to reduce e-waste, the power of AI can be leveraged without compromising the future of our planet.  

With developments such as neural machine translation offering unprecedented efficiency and accuracy, the translation industry is just one of many sectors which have greatly benefited from AI technologies. Software powered by AI has truly changed the game, reducing costs and turnarounds, increasing accessibility and boosting efficiency in general. Translators can focus on more nuanced aspects of language which require the ‘human touch’, while AI takes care of repetitive tasks. Additionally, AI-driven translation tools can help bridge language barriers between individuals, improving cross-cultural communication. They can even help climate activists and groups: for example, trialling Google’s Translation Hub platform greatly helped to expand the capacity of the Climate Cardinals, a group whose volunteers translate reports and other climate information into over 100 languages to raise awareness and improve climate literacy across the world. That said, the training and operating of systems like Google Translate and DeepL involve high computational costs, and we must be aware of the environmental impact of these continuous developments.

In summary, though AI presents certain challenges, it also offers incredible potential and opportunity for all industries. We must work to maximise its capabilities without putting the environment at risk. The translation industry has a responsibility to embrace innovations that do not cost the Earth. By exploring sustainable paths for AI development, we will all be able to harness the potential of this technology while reducing its ecological footprint and ensuring a bright future for our planet.