Article: Sustainable AI Regulation

Abstract

This article addresses a critical gap in the current AI regulatory discourse by focusing on the environmental sustainability of AI and technology more broadly, a topic often overlooked both in environmental law and in technology regulation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the EU AI Act. Recognizing AI’s significant impact on climate change and its substantial water consumption, especially in large generative models like ChatGPT, GPT-4, or Gemini, the article aims to integrate sustainability considerations into technology regulation, in three steps. First, while current EU environmental law does not directly address these issues, there is potential to reinterpret existing legislation, such as the GDPR, to support sustainability goals. Counterintuitively, the article argues that this also implies the need to balance individual rights, such as the right to erasure, with collective environmental interests. Second, based on an analysis of current law, and the proposed EU AI Act, the article suggests a suite of policy measures to align AI and technology regulation with environmental sustainability. They extend beyond mere transparency mechanisms, such as disclosing greenhouse gas footprints, to include a mix of strategies like co-regulation, sustainability by design, restrictions on training data, and consumption caps, potentially integrating AI and technology more broadly into the EU emissions trading regime. Third, this regulatory toolkit could serve as a blueprint for other technologies with high environmental impacts, such as blockchain and metaverse applications. The aim is to establish a comprehensive framework that addresses the dual fundamental societal transformations of digitization and climate change mitigation. AI regulation, environmental sustainability, GDPR, EU AI Act, sustainability goals