超越最后一棵 Truffula 树：SustainAI——一个面向环境责任型 AI 的水感知闭环框架
Beyond the Last Truffula Tree: SustainAI - A Water-Aware, Closed-Loop Framework for Environmentally Accountable AI
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中文总结 AI 辅助
SustainAI 是一个水感知闭环框架，通过实时水计量、幻觉惩罚和路由算法，在 SLM 推理中实现环境问责，并融入关怀设计原则以促进可持续 AI。
中文摘要 AI 辅助
随着人工智能（AI）融入日常生活，其环境足迹，尤其是水消耗，在很大程度上仍然不可见。虽然能源和碳排放影响已被广泛认识，但数据中心冷却和发电所需的大量淡水需求却很少受到关注。为解决这一缺口，我们提出了 SustainAI，一个水感知的闭环框架，将环境责任纳入 AI 部署中。SustainAI 集成了实时水计量、一个幻觉感知惩罚模型，以及一个考虑区域水资源压力的水感知路由算法。通过使用小型语言模型（SLMs）提取健康错误信息进行评估，结果显示，在地理分布的数据中心之间，水足迹存在 11 倍的差异（每次推理 0.0477 毫升至 0.5360 毫升）。在 1,335 次推理运行中，该系统消耗了约 399 毫升水，但仅产生了 240 个正确输出，表明大量资源被用于不准确的响应。至关重要的是，SustainAI 通过“关怀设计”视角超越了技术优化，将 AI 可持续性构建在关系伦理、区域公平和生态管理之上。通过结合水监测、自适应问责制和“关怀设计”原则，SustainAI 为将伦理关怀和环境责任融入 AI 基础设施设计和生命周期管理提供了实践基础。
英文摘要
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in everyday life, its environmental footprint, particularly water consumption remains largely invisible. While energy and carbon impacts are widely recognized, the substantial freshwater demands of data center cooling and electricity generation receive little attention. To address this gap, we introduce SustainAI, a water-aware, closed-loop framework incorporating environmental accountability into AI deployment. SustainAI integrates real-time water metering, a hallucination-aware penalty model, and a water-aware routing algorithm that accounts for regional water stress. Evaluated via Small Language Models (SLMs) extracting health misinformation, results reveal an 11-fold variation in water footprint across geographically distributed data centers (0.0477 mL to 0.5360 mL per inference). Across 1,335 inference runs, the system consumed approximately 399 mL of water but produced only 240 correct outputs, demonstrating that substantial resources are spent on inaccurate responses. Crucially, SustainAI extends beyond technical optimization through a Care by Design lens, framing AI sustainability around relational ethics, regional equity, and ecological stewardship. By combining water monitoring, adaptive accountability, and Care by Design principles, SustainAI provides a practical foundation for integrating ethical care and environmental responsibility into AI infrastructure design and lifecycle management.
发表机构
- Western Sydney University（西悉尼大学）
- Southwest Jiaotong University（西南交通大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。
