Salvage Industries

We also need to consider the afterlife of every technological upgrade. Although not unique to LLMs, the computing demands of AI and the consumer demand LLMs will generate will add to the volume of e-waste created and shipped to countries of the global south for toxic reclamation of valuable metals. The intergenerational impacts are ecocidal for air, soil, water, and localized ecologies; racist in effects on human health, employment, and geographies; and socioeconomic, disproportionately burdening the poor, particularly from the global south.

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• Soaring e-waste affects the health of millions of children, WHO warns