AI Training, Data Centers, and the Right to a Healthy Environment: The Case of xAI in Memphis – Oxford Human Rights Hub

‘The international recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment has gained prominence over the past few years, with confirmation of its existence taking place by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations General Assembly, and most recently the International Court of Justice. This recognition, however, is not entirely new: regional human rights systems in Africa and the Americas have acknowledged this right since the 1980s, and it also exists in many national constitutions. Against this backdrop, a relatively new practice has rapidly gained prominence: the training of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. This process, carried out by specialized companies, aims to refine AI systems to deliver increasingly sophisticated outputs. From an environmental perspective, however, studies have linked AI training to significant environmental costs, including water use for cooling operations and high energy consumption, as well as increasing greenhouse gas emissions, given that AI data centers require constant power. This raises a pressing question: as of 2025, does AI training threaten the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment by contributing to environmental pollution, or does its current scale remain too limited to generate serious human rights concerns?’

Link: https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/ai-training-data-centers-and-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment-the-case-of-xai-in-memphis/