Academic Divides in AI-Driven Environmental Inequality: A Cross-Disciplinary Survey of College Students

• In Event: Blame Attribution and Public Opinion

Abstract

This study examines how college students from diverse academic majors perceive the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in exacerbating environmental inequality. Drawing on survey data from undergraduates at public institutions, we assess how disciplinary backgrounds—ranging from STEM to social sciences and humanities—shape their awareness, concern, and proposed solutions to AI’s disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities. Understanding differing viewpoints helps underscore the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue to ensure that AI tools address, rather than deepen, environmental burdens faced by vulnerable populations.

Authors

• Rhonda Dobbs, Tarleton State University

• Tara O'Connor Shelley, Tarleton State University

• Junghwan Bae, Tarleton State University

• Olga Semukhina, Tarleton State University

• Leo Genco, Tarleton State University