Austin Health

Title
Environmental impact of large language models in medicine.
Publication Date
2024-12
Author(s)
Kleinig, Oliver
Sinhal, Shreyans
Khurram, Rushan
Gao, Christina
Spajic, Luke
Zannettino, Andrew
Schnitzler, Margaret
Guo, Christina
Zaman, Sarah
Smallbone, Harry
Ittimani, Mana
Chan, Weng Onn
Stretton, Brandon
Godber, Harry
Chan, Justin
Turner, Richard C
Warren, Leigh R
Clark, Jonathan CM
Sivagangabalan, Gopal
Marshall-Webb, Matthew
Moseley, Genevieve
Driscoll, Simon
Kovoor, Pramesh
Chow, Clara K
Luo, Yuchen
Thiagalingam, Aravinda
Zaka, Ammar
Gould, Paul
Ramponi, Fabio
Gupta, Aashray
Kovoor, Joshua G
Bacchi, Stephen
Subject
environment
large language model
water use
Type of document
Journal Article
OrcId
0000-0003-3320-4424
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0009-0005-0033-3352
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0000-0002-6646-6167
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0000-0002-7939-3489
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0000-0002-3880-3840
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DOI
10.1111/imj.16549
Abstract
The environmental impact of large language models (LLMs) in medicine spans carbon emission, water consumption and rare mineral usage. Prior-generation LLMs, such as GPT-3, already have concerning environmental impacts. Next-generation LLMs, such as GPT-4, are more energy intensive and used frequently, posing potentially significant environmental harms. We propose a five-step pathway for clinical researchers to minimise the environmental impact of the natural language algorithms they create.
Link
Citation
Internal Medicine Journal 2024-12; 54(12)
Jornal Title
Internal Medicine Journal
ISSN
1445-5994

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