Samsung said “AI” a lot in Unpacked. Except when I talked about the environment

Samsung dropped The new Galaxy S26 smartphone series in Unpacked Wednesday eventTo no one’s surprise, Galaxy AI was one of the phone maker’s biggest selling points. Of the really useful features like Call screening To those that are less necessary, e.g Edit photosAI was everywhere in Samsung’s presentation. Except when I talked about the environment.

The Korean company was keen to mention some of its environmental initiatives, including its pledge to include recycled materials in all its devices by 2030 and its global efforts to recover water. We can give Samsung some credit for talking up its environmentally friendly practices. But you can’t spend more than an hour selling your new AI-filled phones and not talk about how you’re dealing with the enormous environmental cost of developing AI.

It’s an important difference: discussing your environmental strategy versus directly admitting that your AI phones are causing havoc in the environment.

The environmental cost of AI is a growing area of ​​concern for experts and laypeople, and for good reason. Artificial Intelligence is a hungry hippopotamus when it comes to energy. Data centers full of computers training AI require an incredible amount of power. The more we use AI tools once they are released, the more energy technology companies will need to keep them running or developing new tools. That’s why there’s a huge push to build data centers across the United States, and a countervailing pressure to ban them From their potential neighbors. Placement of data centers Additional pressure on electrical networks And it requires Lots of clean water To keep servers from overheating.

Samsung is not alone in its environmental strategy. Google, Microsoft and other tech giants have long addressed concerns about the environmental impact of their technology by pointing to their efforts to make their operations greener. But at the same time, their goals of reaching net-zero emissions are further out of sight than ever. In a 2024 report, Google acknowledged greenhouse gas emissions, the main driver of climate change. It rose by almost 50% Because data centers consume energy.

Technology companies have a responsibility to make sure their products don’t destroy the planet. Ignoring this will not end well for them or us. Just ask OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who faced backlash from experts when he expressed concerns about this AI uses for water ‘fake’ It is relatively small compared to human water use.

Part of the frustration with AI and the environment is that there is little we can do, as individual users, to limit the harm. But we’ll all eventually feel the effects, whether it’s where there’s a data center He moves in next door and raises our electricity billsOr when large-scale problems arise as a result of the scarcity of clean water.

To be clear, I’m very happy that Samsung is making efforts to be environmentally friendly. But if you’re going to sell AI as the future, you have to acknowledge that the same technology may push us further into climate catastrophe.