IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/prbchp/978-3-031-80692-6_1.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Untangling the Life Cycle Impacts of Artificial Intelligence

In: Advanced Perspectives and Trends in Digital Transformation of Firms, Networks, and Society

Author

Listed:
  • Henrik Skaug Sætra

    (University of Oslo)

  • Kari-Anne Lyng

    (University of Oslo
    NORSUS Norwegian Institute for Sustainability Research)

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being promoted as an instrumental part of the “twin transition,” in which the digital and the green transition are seen as mutually reinforcing. However, there is a need for better methods and models for understanding the environmental impacts of AI systems. While positive impacts of AI for climate change mitigation and adaption are likely, these should only be pursued if they produce a net positive effect, and this requires a thorough understanding of both the climate-related impacts and impacts on, for example, resource depletion, water use, land use, and ecotoxicity. One method for unraveling these impacts is life cycle assessments (LCAs), and in this chapter, we identify and discuss methodological aspects that are relevant when performing LCA of AI systems. The study aims at contributing to taking the first steps toward methodological development and application of LCA to assess the environmental sustainability of AI systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrik Skaug Sætra & Kari-Anne Lyng, 2025. "Untangling the Life Cycle Impacts of Artificial Intelligence," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Francesco Schiavone & Nessrine Omrani & Heger Gabteni (ed.), Advanced Perspectives and Trends in Digital Transformation of Firms, Networks, and Society, chapter 0, pages 3-12, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-80692-6_1
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80692-6_1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-80692-6_1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.