Reimagining AI for Environmental Justice and Creativity

Artificial intelligence (AI) is frequently presented as ubiquitous and inevitable. Today, it has penetrated nearly every sector of global society, from health to education to finance, becoming the focus of many a national news story, international declaration, and intra-national political agendas. Despite its rising popularity, AI is not always visible. People everywhere constantly interact with AI-based systems, making decisions for them in apps and services without being notified of the automated decision-making process. The often-vague narrative about AI’s potentialities and limitations contributes to the opacity of such systems whose social, environmental and cultural costs are still being measured and studied. Simultaneously, well-documented analyses of harms caused by overly techno-optimistic adoptions of AI guide us toward voices not always heard in the race for global AI leadership. At the heart of many of these conversations – both the ostentatious promises of techno-utopians and the grounded and conscientious work of critical AI researchers – are questions about the current state, and possible future of, creativity and environmental sustainability in a world with, of, and through, AI. If AI, especially large-language models (LLMs), are contributing to a burning planet by using massive amounts of resources while also hindering creative industries, what comes next? If we could reimagine AI and its ecosystem, what would it look like? This collection of essays emerged from a workshop also titled “Reimagining AI for Environmental Justice and Creativity,” which took place at the University of Virginia (UVA)’s main campus in Charlottesville, United States, in October 2024. It is designed to become another useful resource for a broad audience with various backgrounds, skills, and interests. From educational and research contexts to policymaking and activism, we hope the ideas featured here will help us to reflect upon the challenges ahead when building, using and evaluating AI in different contexts.

Reia, J., Forelle, MC and Wang, Y. (2025). Reimagining AI for Environmental Justice and Creativity. Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, University of Virginia.