The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is built on a supply chain that relies heavily on environmental degradation and labor exploitation in some of the world’s poorest regions, according to researchers and UN agencies.
In arid regions such as Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities account for up to 65% of total regional water use, competing with agriculture and local ecosystems. Groundwater levels have dropped, salt lagoons have shrunk, and freshwater aquifers face increasing risk of depletion and contamination. Lithium extraction—the key input for EV batteries and AI data center power infrastructure—has displaced Indigenous communities, destroyed habitats, and exposed workers to severe health risks including respiratory problems and skin conditions. Flamingo populations in the region have declined by up to 50% as breeding grounds have been disrupted.
The AI industry’s reliance on data labeling workers represents another form of exploitation. Companies including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft depend on human annotators primarily in the Philippines, Kenya, and Ukraine to categorize and label the data that trains AI models. These workers typically earn between $1 and $3 per hour. Some report psychological trauma from processing disturbing content, including images of murder, suicide, and sexual abuse.
The Cost of Clean Energy Transition
A 2024 UN Environment Programme report emphasized that the transition to clean energy must not come at the expense of human rights. The report calls for stronger regulations and corporate accountability to ensure that benefits of the green economy are shared equitably and that affected communities have a central voice in decision-making.
AI infrastructure—particularly the data centers required to train and run large models—consumes enormous amounts of electricity and water. The mining of rare earth minerals and metals needed for servers, networking equipment, and cooling systems creates environmental and social costs that are largely invisible to consumers of AI services.
Water pollution compounds these challenges. Mining generates large quantities of toxic byproducts, including chemical compounds that contaminate waterways and soil, affecting communities downstream from extraction sites.