What if the technology making life easier is quietly creating a bill someone else has to pay?Every time you ask a chatbot a question, generate an image, or use an automated tool, an enormous system is working behind the scenes. Data centres consume electricity and water. Specialized chips require minerals, factories and global supply chains. Human workers label data and moderate disturbing material. Writers, artists and publishers face questions about how their work is collected and used. And millions of workers are beginning to wonder what happens when machines can perform tasks once reserved for people.The Hidden Cost of AI examines the less visible consequences of one of the most powerful technological revolutions in history.Roy Moses explores the infrastructure behind modern AI, the environmental burden of computing, the human labour that makes seemingly autonomous systems possible, the disruption of professional careers, the psychological effects of increasingly intelligent machines, the rise of synthetic media and misinformation, and the concentration of technological power in the hands of a small number of companies and governments.This is not an argument against technology. It is an argument for seeing the complete picture.From electricity and water consumption to employment, creativity, privacy, truth and political power, this book asks a fundamental question:Who ultimately pays for the convenience of artificial intelligence?A thought-provoking examination for anyone who wants to understand not only what AI can do, but what its rapid expansion may be costing society.
