Towards an environmental governance of GenAI: minerals, energy, and waste

This talk looks at the journey behind generative AI: from the computer chips it depends on to the electronic waste it eventually creates. Bringing together ideas from science and technology studies (STS), environmental research, and computer science, it explores how AI is governed through global supply chains and the environmental and health impacts that come with them.

By following each step of the supply chain, the talk shows how the rapid growth of AI is creating new environmental and social challenges, while also exposing long-standing problems linked to resource extraction, manufacturing, and waste. At a time when AI is expanding quickly alongside the climate crisis, the talk argues that understanding AI requires us to visualise its materiality with the lived experiences of the people and places that make it possible. Only then can we make better choices about how AI is developed and build a fairer and more sustainable present and future.

The event will be introduced by the academic Javier Andreu-Perez, who will chair the roundtable discussion.

Ana Valdivia is a Departmental Research Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Government, and Policy at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). She investigates how datafication and algorithmic systems are transforming political, social, and ecological territories and communities. Her current research agenda focuses on the AI supply chains, by investigating trade-off between environmental costs and social benefits of AI, from mineral extraction to chip manufacturing, data centres, and electronic waste dumps across different geographies. She is currently writing a book 'The Materiality of AI' (2027) for Bristol University Press. Ana has been awarded the Young Academy of Spain. In 2025, she was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the UCL Centre of Advanced Studies. In the same year, she received the Teaching Excellence Award from the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford.

Dr Andreu-Perez, Reader (Associate Professor) in Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence, is a British computer scientist (born in Malaga, Spain). He also chairs the Smart Health Technologies Group at the Centre for Computational Intelligence. He holds a PhD (2012) in Intelligent Systems from Lancaster University (Bowland College), United Kingdom. Javier was also awarded a Senior Talentia Fellow and an Invitational Fellowship of Japan's Society for the Promotion of Science.

Before joining the University of Essex, Javier held research staff positions at Imperial College London and Lancaster University. He has also been a visiting academic fellow of the Faculty of Health (St Mary's Hospital) at Imperial College London.

He has contributed to a number of research projects funded by the EU, UKRI, NIHR, DSTL and the industry. Javier's fundamental science research is actively supported by UK charities, governmental agencies, foundations, and trusts. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE Society in Computational Intelligence, has co-edited special issues in the area and published highly cited papers in top journals and conferences in the area of artificial intelligence and health informatics. His research work has been licensed by UK FTSE companies such as GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Event organised in collaboration with CERU - SRUK.

Event in English.

Description supplied by the event organiser.