Managing sustainability tensions in artificial intelligence: Insights from paradox theory

Abstract

This paper offers preliminary reflections on the sustainability tensions present in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and suggests that Paradox Theory, an approach borrowed from the strategic management literature, may help guide scholars towards innovative solutions. The benefits of AI to our society are well documented. Yet those benefits come at environmental and sociological cost, a fact which is often overlooked by mainstream scholars and practitioners. After examining the nascent corpus of literature on the sustainability tensions present in AI, this paper introduces the Accuracy-Energy Paradox and suggests how the principles of paradox theory can guide the AI community to a more sustainable solution.