When 50 fifty state attorneys general warn that Artificial Intelligence is a danger — we should take notice.

The areas of concern expressed by attorneys general include AI generated data related to law enforcement, healthcare, employment, educational content, election results, sexual predation of children, and digital surveillance.

The federal government (in The Big Bill) planned to suspend AI regulation prompting state attorneys general to object in a letter to the federal government asking for states’ right to regulate AI. Subsequently federal deregulation was not included in “The Big Bill”. Nonetheless, the concerns regarding AI persist.

Could a state of arbitrary algorithmic governance replace constitutional law? Will automated machine learning and decision-making systems carry out functions once reserved for human beings? Will data related to policing, welfare eligibility, immigration vetting, job recruitment, credit scoring, judicial assessments and privacy rights be compromised? Will law no longer be interpreted but rather risk assessment software assign threat scores to citizens with no explanation, no oversight and no redress?

AI algorithms function covertly, shielded by trade secrets and protected by national security exemptions. The public can’t see them. The courts cannot challenge them.

Will AI systems be appointed to surveil, categorize, and criminalize the public without transparency or recourse? Will unelected developers and corporate contractors hold power over our lives with little oversight, due process, or the presumption of innocence?

Also concerning is the electricity demand of AI – some estimates express a six to ten times increase in electricity demand to power AI development and data gathering creating a grid stability issue.

According to a recent IEA report: “new datasets and extensive consultation with policy makers, the tech sector, the energy industry and international experts… projects that electricity demand from data centres worldwide is set to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh), slightly more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan today. AI will be the driver of this increase.

“Driven by AI use, the US economy is set to consume more electricity in 2030 for processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined, including aluminum, steel, cement and chemicals.” Energy security takes on new significance. “Cyber attacks on energy utilities have tripled in the past four years and become more sophisticated because of AI. Another energy security concern relates to the expanding demand for critical minerals used in the equipment in the data centres that power AI. The IEA report provides first-of-its-kind estimates of demand from data centres for critical minerals, whose global supply is today highly concentrated.”

“Where is the power going to come from?” Nature Magazine asks in a recent feature article on artificial intelligence.

In a recent Forbes article AI Is Accelerating the Loss of Our Scarcest Natural Resource: Water “….our world is racing ahead to advance AI into every aspect of our world. With the rise of generative AI, companies have significantly raised their water usage, sparking concerns about the sustainability of such practices amid global freshwater scarcity and climate change challenges.”

Our rural communities already suffer under the burden of poorly planned energy systems with emphasis on wind, solar, and battery energy storage – all of which produce or store tiny amounts of electricity at great expense. We, the residents, embraced energy conservation, reducing heat in our homes, turning off our lights – only to be faced with more economic and environmental destruction from an energy policy that clear-cuts our forests, destroys our farmlands and threatens our watersheds and drinking water.

AI transparency, data ownership rights, and legal recourse are essential.

Is AI what promoters claim? Or is it something else?

Karen Engstrom is a Mayville resident.