Environmental Slow AI: Design Principles for Generative Systems
Generative AI (genAI) systems produce cultural artefacts at scale, but they also reflect embedded cultural values through their design. Once identified, these values become open to deliberate reshaping. This position paper examines the maximalist values of current generative AI through an environmental humanities tradition and proposes design principles in which environmental sustainability serves as the core value instead. The principles are developed under the umbrella of Slow AI, a term that already circulates across several distinct research and practice programs. Five design principles are articulated (restraint, sufficiency, selectivity over retention, material visibility, and frict...
| Authors | Vanessa Utz |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 2 July 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 2 July 2026 |
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