A coalition of environmental, technology and anti-hate speech groups sent a letter Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today demanding that the Democratic leader craft a policy to address the growing impact AI could have on climate change.

Companies should be required to disclose the environmental impact of developing energy-intensive AI models, the letter says. And legislation aimed at limiting the misuse of AI should include measures to prevent climate change misinformation from spreading with the help of AI, the coalition writes.

The letter was signed by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, Greenpeace USA, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Center for Countering Digital Hate and more than a dozen other groups.

Large language models, like the one behind ChatGPT, are at the center of the groups’ AI concerns. “Energy use of LLMs should be monitored and disclosed transparently, allowing both consumers and policymakers to understand the advantages and disadvantages of such technology,” the letter says. “Second, the ease and speed with which individuals and organizations can use LLMs to produce and distribute climate disinformation threatens to perpetuate climate denialism and slow down efforts to fight climate change.”

It takes a lot of energy to train large language models, which can increase planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. The amount of computing needed to train large AI models increased 300,000-fold between 2012 and 2018, according to one study. analysis, and that was before the rise of today’s generative AI. AI accounted for nearly 15 percent of Google’s energy use over three years, which is roughly equivalent to as much electricity as all the homes in the city of Atlanta could use annuallyaccording to 2022 analysis.

Companies should have to publicly report energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions arising from the entire lifecycle of their AI models, the letter says. That should include the environmental impact of users’ search queries, as well as the training needed to develop and update the models. It’s also important to take stock of what types of critical metals and minerals are used for AI and assess whether that affects the availability of those key resources for clean energy, the coalition argues. Silicon is used, for example, in computer chips and solar cells.

There is also growing concern that artificial intelligence tools could boost disinformation campaigns. A study published earlier this year found that people were more likely to trust tweets generated by the GPT-3 language model than scientific content written by humans, including content about climate change.

The letter goes so far as to say that companies and executives should be “responsible for harms that occur as a result of generative AI, including harm to the environment, while preserving free expression and human rights.” It also says companies should be able to explain to regulators and the general public how their generative AI models create content and how they measure accuracy.

Schumer has urged his colleagues in Congress to craft rules to regulate AI. That includes convening what he calls “AI Insight Forums” this year. The first will be on Wednesday, a closed-door meeting between senators and big tech leaders, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT. Congress also plans to hold a lot of hearings on AI oversight throughout the week.

AI is not the only industry facing scrutiny over its carbon footprint. Democrats have also tried to force energy-hungry Bitcoin mining companies to disclose their electricity consumption and pollution. The SEC has proposed Require publicly traded companies to report on the climate impact of their operations and supply chains. California is also expected to vote this week on a bill that would similarly require disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions by large companies doing business in the state.