Ethical and environmental considerations for the application of Artificial Intelligence in archaeological research

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been making big waves in archaeological research over the past decade, with an increasing number of archaeologists implementing generative AI, machine learning, and deep learning technologies into their research programs. Though AI can improve the efficiency and accuracy of archaeological research, few archaeologists have considered the environmental impacts of AI. As stewards of cultural and environmental resources, it is irresponsible and unethical of us not to explore how our own research contributes to environmental impacts and to seek ways to offset this. In line with this, classical AI offers many advantages over generative AI in archaeological research. In this article, we critically examine the application of AI to archaeological research through a case study from our research program and discuss one way that the application of classical machine learning reduces the adverse environmental impact of archaeological research using microartifact analysis.