Free AI Sustainability Webinar!

Submitted by: Gabriel Rios

What does it really cost to ask AI a question?

Not the subscription fee. Not the learning curve. The hidden cost is physical: energy-hungry data centers, water used for cooling, hardware supply chains, and the environmental toll of keeping AI systems running at scale. AI may feel seamless from the user side, but behind every polished output is an infrastructure story most people never see.

That story matters more than ever in health sciences libraries.

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping biomedical research and clinical care by speeding up drug discovery, helping with evidence synthesis, and automating parts of literature review. At the same time, medical librarians are increasingly being asked to evaluate AI tools, teach AI literacy, and help guide institutional conversations around their use. And that means AI literacy can’t stop at accuracy, bias, and ethics. It also has to include sustainability.

That’s the focus of Balancing Innovation and Impact: AI Sustainability for Health Sciences Libraries, a free 90-minute live webinar hosted by the AI Imperative Task Force.

This isn’t a doom-and-gloom session, and it’s not a cheerleading exercise either. It’s a chance to look at what current research actually says about generative AI and large language models without getting lost in headlines or forced into the “hype versus fear” debate. What are the real energy demands of training and using these systems? Where do carbon emissions, water use, hardware production, and waste fit into the picture? And how should librarians talk about those trade-offs with patrons, faculty, clinicians, and leadership?

Attendees will come away with practical value, not just more information. The session is designed to help participants build shared vocabulary, understand the full lifecycle of AI systems, and develop useful frameworks for discussing responsible computing in healthcare and academic environments. In other words, it gives you tools for better conversations—not just bigger questions.

Another reason to pay attention: this is a facilitated conversation, not a string of traditional presentations. Expect multidisciplinary perspectives, real-world context, and interactive audience discussion. That means space for nuance, space for questions, and space to think through what responsible AI use looks like in your own setting.

Whether you’re an enthusiastic early adopter, a cautious skeptic, or a library administrator trying to align technology decisions with sustainability goals, this webinar is built for you. It’s specifically designed for health sciences librarians, academic medical librarians, clinical information specialists, research support professionals, library leaders, and educators working in AI literacy and technology guidance.

AI isn’t just changing our work. It’s changing the questions we need to ask about our work.

Join us for this free webinar and leave with clearer language, stronger frameworks, and more confidence for the conversations ahead. Save your spot today!