The Double-Edged Sustainability Sword Of AI In Web Design — Smashing Magazine
September 1, 2025
AI has introduced huge efficiencies for web designers and is frequently being touted as the key to unlocking sustainable design and development. But do these gains outweigh the environmental cost of using energy-hungry AI tools? This article is an examination of that question, breaking down the sustainability pros and cons of AI use, so you can make informed decisions about the tools you use.
Source: The Double-Edged Sustainability Sword Of AI In Web Design — Smashing Magazine
When your almost teenage daughter calls out your use of generative AI as being negatively impactful on the environment, you know, even though young folks these days are terminally online, that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
While some of the reports of environmental impacts of these technologies seem not to always be particularly well grounded in actual data, it’s certainly something we should pay attention to.
Here Alex Williams asks the question
Does the environmental toll of powering AI infrastructure eclipse the efficiency gains?
