The surprising reason why women are using AI less often than men

""When I was young, it rained a lot," she says. "Now, it rains much less. All the fires are astoundingly horrific.""

""I just didn't want to be contributing to anything that was causing that," Burgi says."

""They make me think of Frankenstein," Burgi says of AI models. There have been times in history, she says, when humans have "acted without any idea of what the consequences would be, because it was convenient for us in that moment." Right now, she adds, "that's what's happening with AI.""

Claire Burgi moved to New York City a decade ago and eliminated meat from her diet after witnessing local climate impacts in California, including reduced rainfall and more severe wildfires such as the December 2017 Thomas wildfire that burned over 280,000 acres near Ventura. Burgi later chose to avoid generative AI because research indicates large energy and water demands and rising carbon emissions: a 2023 paper projected AI infrastructure could consume six times Denmark’s annual water use, and 2024 research found a ChatGPT request uses ten times the electricity of a Google search. Women have adopted AI more slowly than men; Rembrand Koning synthesized 18 studies covering more than 140,000 people and found women roughly 20% less likely than men to directly engage with AI tools.

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