I wanted to share some of my ideas around the ethics of using AI. This is becoming a hot topic of debate not just in the counselling profession but around the world. I have a couple of takes to share on this, beginning with my ideas around human impact and then I touch on the impact of AI centres on climate change and our natural world.
You may have heard about the speed with which AI is gaining momentum to the point that now it will analyse conversations through platforms like "Redditt" for example, to name just one of the many, take data at great speed understanding conversational styles between people chatting on the platform and can even interpret when something is "implied" not just "said." AI can then accurately decipher the response to individual personalities and communication styles. This is a round about way of saying, that leading experts are suggesting that AI is becoming an entity in its own right without the aid of human input. This information is varied and wide and I invite anyone reading this to be curious and find out the facts for themselves however I feel drawn to share my thoughts and I hope this at least gets people curious about the subject.
Most of us have gotten quite used to asking our AI companion literally anything we need to know and frankly, why wouldn't we? We are mostly, time poor and anything that can make life quicker and easier, well it's a goer right? ...or so I thought. Certainly until recently, I hadn't understood the possible implications of what, this seemingly innocuous act, meant on an existential level.
My son is a very concerned man in his mid 20's with a very keen eye on the future -his future and the future of the planet - and mainly, thanks to him, I have gained more and more intrigue and curiousity around, AI's impact on our world.
I counted that I used Gemini 10 times in just one afternoon and that didn't include the morning or evening and that's just me! times that by all of the users, businesses etc accessing AI on a daily basis and that is going to be a much higher number per afternoon for a lot and suddenly we have created a monster that is out of control.
This led me to ask another question to myself, "I wonder whether without the easy access to AI (helping to answer any discrepancy) whether as many questions would arise". I can't remember ever feeling overwhelmed with lots of quieries and ananswered questions before AI do you? I mean yes, for sure, I will have had questions and I am sure at times I thought,"I wish I knew the answer" but I suspect I would have either researched the answer through the web (before AI) or asked someone, read an article or book or just simply, moved on with my life.
So does it mean that having easy access to answers only goes to produce more questions? after all when we have to work harder to find the answers for example go to the library or search the web or even ask a friend this takes time and doesn't neccessarily produce the answer that is most accurate. But how "questioning" how unsatisfied are we with not having instant and 100% accurate answers? Has this changed the mentality of us as humans over the years?
So for me an ethical consideration of whether it is good for us humans to have everything answered without any effort to find the solution from other means has emerged and in addition, I wonder if we are becoming more restless maybe even bored if things take time to produce an answer. I am curious how is this impacting our mental and physical health?
The overwhelming emotion that I have around AI is "fear" this although an emotion we consider "negative" I see it as my "protector" almost acting as a compass and a caretaker of my values. I invite readers to perhaps ponder this "what emotions come up for you when you think about AI and its impact on firstly, ourselves and secondly our environment?"
Yes of course I find it helpful when I need answers straight away but in the pursuit of convenience am I paying a human price? for example, "am I becoming less tolerant of waiting? less prepared to accept when something isn't 100% accurate? and what are the ongoing implications of this?
However the biggest ethical consideration that I believe we all need to take seriously is the impact AI is having on the climate which is already (as we are all aware) in serious trouble. AI needs enormous amounts of water, electricity and hardware in order to function and this all takes place in huge data centres which are increasing fast.
When we use AI, from sending a prompt or asking a question to a chatbot, we are oblivious to the sheer amount of energy used to generate the answer. Think how many people accross the world are asking questions, sending prompts? literally billions a day. Just to clarify what this looks like in energy used, and btw, for the purposes of this blog I have taken statistical information from "Blockchain Council" (Global Tech Council) where Michael Wilson reports in September 2025 that Data centres are power hungry and AI makes them even hungrier. He states, In 2022, global data centers consumed about 240 to 340 terawatt hours of electricity. That accounted for about one to one and a half percent of all electricity demand worldwide. This has increased significantly since 2022 and no doubt set to increase further. Again, I invite all those interested in my blog to research the facts online (not through AI preferably).
So the existential consideration of whether it is ethical to use AI is now more and more crucial and I am very pleased that people are talking about it now and businesses are debating the ethical connotations and considerations.
As I draw a conclusion to this little rant I guess I conclude that, in the process of debate and understanding the facts, that maybe we all have questions for ourselves, What are my values? what is my core belief about using AI? does AI and the information surrounding its impact on ourselves as humans and climate change and in turn then animals and widlife, align with my values and morals?
Ironically these are questions that AI can't answer because only you know your values and only you know your morals and what is and isn't an ethical concern for you. Within that, only you can find your answers. Long may that be the case.
Louise Brignell. PGdip, MBACP, MNCP (Acc).
