Is deep learning bad for the environment?
According to an academic study on energy usage for deep learning processes, the creation of an effective AI might be costly to the environment. Nearly 300,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are created during the process of training a single model.
Unsurprisingly, carbon emissions are also a hot topic in the machine learning community. Machine learning models require lots of memory and compute resources, all of which consume power that contributes to a global digital carbon footprint.
Practical Limits of Deep Learning
Requires massive amounts of (labeled) data. Long training time. Large trained models. Catastrophic forgetting.
In a study last year, researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst estimated that training a large deep-learning model produces 626,000 pounds of planet-warming carbon dioxide, equal to the lifetime emissions of five cars.
Drawbacks or disadvantages of Deep Learning
➨It requires very large amount of data in order to perform better than other techniques. ➨It is extremely expensive to train due to complex data models. Moreover deep learning requires expensive GPUs and hundreds of machines. This increases cost to the users.
Deep learning models may face significant difficulties due to the learning pace. The model will converge too rapidly if the rate is too high, leading to a less-than-ideal outcome. It may become stuck in the process and be much more difficult to find a solution if the pace is too low.
Per the paper, training AI models can emit more than 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent--nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average American car (including the manufacture of the car itself).
Less emissions from transportation
A study from the University of West Georgia found that for every 100 students who did not go to school, CO2 emissions were reduced by 5-10 tons per semester. Another study by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) showed that online courses could help reduce CO2 emissions by 90%.
But AI systems also raise sustainability concerns linked to the natural resources they consume such as electricity and water, and the carbon emissions they produce. The rise of deep learning and large language models has also dramatically increased the amount of compute capacity AI systems need.
When you want to explain how the algorithm works itself — for example, if you were to present the algorithm itself to stakeholders, they might get lost, because even a simplified approach is still difficult to understand.
Why is deep learning controversial?
This lack of transparency in deep learning is what we call the “black box” problem. Deep learning algorithms sift through millions of data points to find patterns and correlations that often go unnoticed to human experts. The decision they make based on these findings often confound even the engineers who created them.
Deep learning algorithms are also data-hungry, requiring a large amount of data for better accuracy.

Researchers have developed a climate-carbon cycle model using machine learning algorithms to improve estimates of carbon emissions by 50 percent over traditional methods.
Machine learning can tackle climate change by enhancing or adjusting technical systems to best utilise resources, based on contextual information supplied to the model. For example, automated electricity grids optimise energy production by monitoring and predicting energy supply and demand.
A machine-learning approach can give scientists insight into the environmental preferences of microbes, based only on their genes. The approach has practical research implications: it could help researchers more efficiently grow bacteria in the laboratory.
Customer privacy and data security are important challenges of collecting large volumes of data for a deep learning model. Most business applications require access to sensitive customer data.
Deep learning is a popular approach for many AI developers. However, traditional machine learning is still a modest first choice for many practitioners. For deep learning to render ML obsolete, it will have to become easier to use and more refined and overcome current challenges regarding performance and reliability.
- Lack of face-to-face interaction.
- Difficulty staying motivated.
- Limited access to resources and support.
- Technical difficulties.
- Isolation.
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning, and machine learning is a subset of AI, which is an umbrella term for any computer program that does something smart. In other words, all machine learning is AI, but not all AI is machine learning, and so forth.
Data Privacy and Security
The main factor on which all the deep and machine learning models are based on is the availability of data and resources to train them. Yes, we have data, but as this data is generated from millions of users around the globe, there are chances this data can be used for bad purposes.
Why not use neural networks for everything?
One of the main disadvantages of neural networks is that they tend to require a lot of training data. There are some special frameworks that can be used in cases where you do not have large training datasets, but they add multiple steps to the model training process.
Tesla is using real-world data and deep learning to further advance its technology.
Musk's carbon footprint from his 171 private flights in 2022 was 132 times the size of the average US resident's total annual footprint from all activities, the report found. His private plane burned about 221,358 gallons of jet fuel and emitted about 2,112 metric tons of carbon emissions last year, the report found.
The MIT Technology Review reported that training just one AI model can emit more than 626,00 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent – which is nearly five times the lifetime emissions of an average American car.
Decreases Paper Waste and Saves Trees
Perhaps the biggest environmental benefit of online learning is the decrease in paper waste. Did you know that a typical school uses about 2,000 sheets of paper per day? That is about one tree per week!
E-Learning lacks face-to-face communication
A lack of face-to-face communication with the instructor inhibits student feedback, causes social isolation, and could cause students to feel a lack of pressure. A lack of pressure is a disadvantage because it causes students to abandon their studies more easily.
- Limited Teacher to Student Feedback.
- Risk of Social Isolation.
- Cheating is more brutal to monitor.
- E-learning is inaccessible to digitally illiterate people.
- Issues with Accreditation and Quality Assurance.
- Requires self-motivation and efficient time management skills.
One of the main reasons why AI cannot replace human beings is the lack of creativity. Humans possess a unique ability to think creatively and come up with new and original ideas. Creativity is a complex human trait that is influenced by various factors such as emotions, culture, and experiences.
Those with firsthand knowledge of developing and implementing AI models understand that the arduous process of training AI models requires enormous amounts of energy, leading to unsustainable emissions and air pollution.
AI applications automate the majority of tedious and repetitive tasks. Since we do not have to memorize things or solve puzzles to get the job done, we tend to use our brains less and less. This addiction to AI can cause problems to future generations.
Where machine learning should not be used?
No Data “Cold Start Problem”
You want to predict your next sales from repeat customers, then you need historical sales data. It's also called a “cold start problem” if you don't have enough or any or data for a use case of ML. Machine learning algorithms and models cannot generate recommendations from it.
Deep learning models are best used on large volumes of data, while machine learning algorithms are generally used for smaller datasets. In fact, using complex DL models on small, simple datasets culminate in inaccurate results and high variance - a mistake often made by beginners in the field.
Deep learning plays an important role in statistics and predictive modeling. By collecting massive amounts of data and analyzing it, Deep Learning creates multiple predictive models to understand patterns and trends within the data.
The brutal truth is that no machine can learn anything.
Deep learning neural networks, or artificial neural networks, attempts to mimic the human brain through a combination of data inputs, weights, and bias. These elements work together to accurately recognize, classify, and describe objects within the data.
The very most disadvantage of a neural network is its black box nature. Because it has the ability to approximate any function, study its structure but don't give any insights on the structure of the function being approximated.
The reason why Netflix's services are so popular worldwide is that the company uses cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide consumers with more appropriate and intuitive suggestions.
Both fields offer good job opportunities as the demand is high for professionals across industries while there is a lack of skilled professionals; machine learning professionals are in more demand when compared with big data analysts.
Data Mining is a process of discovering hidden patterns and rules from the existing data. It uses relatively simple rules such as association, correlation rules for the decision-making process, etc. Deep Learning is used for complex problem processing such as voice recognition etc.
Another use for AI is helping to reduce the carbon that is released into the atmosphere, and AI feeds into the entire chain of activities related to transitioning from a carbon-based economy to a net carbon zero economy.
How can we reduce carbon footprint in AI?
- Emit less carbon from AI. Make more efficient use of computational resources for AI while maintaining machine learning model accuracy.
- Improve edge-device AI efficiency. Ensure resource and energy efficiency on constrained hardware, such as smartphones and IoT devices.
- Empower AI developers.
Ending Our Reliance on Fossil Fuels
We must replace coal, oil, and gas with renewable and efficient energy sources. Thankfully, with each passing year, clean energy is making gains as technology improves and production costs go down.
While AI is still somewhat in its early stages, there's no doubt that it could play a major role in mitigating climate change. Though AI can't solve the climate crisis alone, integrating it into our eco-friendly practices could make a big difference in how things play out.
If emissions remain high over the next few decades, the AI predicts a one-in-two chance that Earth will become 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) hotter on average compared to pre-industrial times by the middle of this century, and a more than four-in-five chance of reaching that threshold by 2060.
- Jupyter Notebook. Jupyter Notebook is one of the most used Python IDEs for data science. ...
- PyCharm. PyCharm is one of the best Python IDE for machine learning. ...
- Google Colaboratory. ...
- Visual Studio Code. ...
- Spyder. ...
- Atom. ...
- Thonny.
Machine Learning can predict many natural disasters, like hurricanes, earthquakes, and flash floods, as well as any man-made disasters, including oil spills. Deep learning networks are used in an Earthquake Detection System, which is a good example.
When applied to Big Data collections, such as NASA Earth observing data, AI and ML can be used to sift through years of data and imagery rapidly and efficiently to find relationships that would be impossible for a human to detect.
Experts Agree: AI Can Help
Whether it's mitigating the effects of disasters such as floods and fires more quickly or building a cleaner energy grid, the evidence is mounting that AI has an essential role to play in helping to protect us as the planet reacts to climate change.
Decreases Paper Waste and Saves Trees
Perhaps the biggest environmental benefit of online learning is the decrease in paper waste. Did you know that a typical school uses about 2,000 sheets of paper per day? That is about one tree per week!
Training GPT-3, which is a single general-purpose AI program that can generate language and has many different uses, took 1.287 gigawatt hours, according to a research paper published in 2021, or about as much electricity as 120 US homes would consume in a year.
References
- https://www.simplilearn.com/how-netflix-uses-ai-data-science-and-ml-article
- https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2022/12/machine-learning-with-limited-data/
- https://towardsdatascience.com/when-to-avoid-deep-learning-a7cfe3635022
- http://wiki.pathmind.com/ai-vs-machine-learning-vs-deep-learning
- https://www.prosperityforamerica.org/disadvantages-of-online-learning/
- https://www.turing.com/kb/ultimate-battle-between-deep-learning-and-machine-learning
- https://www.cognixia.com/blog/how-can-machine-learning-help-save-the-environment/
- https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/data-mining-vs-machine-learning-vs-ai/
- https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/AI-and-climate-change-The-mixed-impact-of-machine-learning
- https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/esds/ai-ml
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230428153618.htm
- https://crunchingthedata.com/when-to-use-neural-networks/
- https://www.makeuseof.com/ways-ai-help-fight-climate-change/
- https://www.learningtree.com/blog/carbon-footprint-ai-deep-learning/
- https://earth.org/machine-learning-climate-change/
- https://qymatix.de/en/situations-without-machine-learning/
- https://www.upgrad.com/blog/top-challenges-in-artificial-intelligence/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/03/22/green-intelligence-why-data-and-ai-must-become-more-sustainable/
- https://people.engr.tamu.edu/choe/choe/courses/20spring/420/lectures/slide09-overcoming.pdf
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-09/how-much-energy-do-ai-and-chatgpt-use-no-one-knows-for-sure
- https://research.aimultiple.com/deep-learning-challenges/
- https://www.simplilearn.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-artificial-intelligence-article
- https://vitalflux.com/machine-learning-use-cases-climate-change/
- https://odsc.medium.com/has-deep-learning-made-traditional-machine-learning-obsolete-494719a40c44
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/12-reasons-why-ai-cannot-replace-humans-a-g-danish
- https://www.shiksha.com/online-courses/articles/big-data-analytics-and-machine-learning/
- https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/deep-learning-tutorial/what-is-deep-learning
- https://news.mit.edu/2020/shrinking-deep-learning-carbon-footprint-0807
- https://www.pcmag.com/news/disaster-prevention-and-climate-resilience-how-ai-helps-us-save-the-planet
- https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-brutal-truth-about-machine-learning
- https://www.seldon.io/the-environmental-impact-of-ml-inference
- https://www.oecd-events.org/cop27/session/f174ec37-5145-ed11-819a-00224880a4d8/what-is-the-environmental-footprint-of-artificial-intelligence-
- https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/01/27/6-ways-teslas-autonomous-driving-technology-is-evo/
- https://news.stanford.edu/2023/01/30/ai-predicts-global-warming-will-exceed-1-5-degrees-2030s/
- https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-are-solutions-climate-change
- https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-private-jet-carbon-footprint-climate-change-2023-4
- https://www.analyticsinsight.net/neural-networks-not-answer-everything/
- https://www.projectpro.io/article/best-python-ide-for-data-science-and-machine-learning/812
- https://www.sustainablebusinesstoolkit.com/social-and-eco-benefits-of-online-learning/
- https://www.iu.org/knowledge-base/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-classes/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/reducing-ais-carbon-footprint/
- https://www.mediatouch.it/en/blog/green-education-why-online-learning-is-beneficial-for-the-environment/
- https://hub.jhu.edu/2023/03/07/artificial-intelligence-combat-climate-change/
- https://www.ibm.com/topics/deep-learning
- https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-Deep-Learning.html
- https://e-student.org/disadvantages-of-e-learning/
- https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/sustainable-AI
- https://www.analyticsinsight.net/what-is-deep-learning-its-limitations-and-challenges/
- https://bdtechtalks.com/2018/02/27/limits-challenges-deep-learning-gary-marcus/