Computational power creates huge amounts of heat, and unless that heat is cooled, the circuits controlling it will burn out. AI uses phenomenal amounts of power, and it is cooled through water, making each search term a drain on our most precious resource.
AI is incredibly thirsty, from the production stage to the data center level. Initially, water is used to produce the chips that the servers run on. Then, water is used for electricity generation. Finally, and at the most wasteful level, AI uses incredible amounts of water for cooling the data centers.
There is a difference between withdrawal and consumption when talking about AI water usage. Withdrawal means that the water is in the system and being held for use. Consuming the water means that it is being used, and then turned into steam, or kicked out of the system.
A rough estimation in an investigation by the Washington Post claims that “ChatGPT requires up to three bottles of water to generate a single 100-word email.” Another study by a group of scientists claims that AI consumes “a 500ml water bottle for every 10–50 medium-sized queries.”
The result is that there is a vast amount of water withdrawal in places where data centers exist. Current estimations by professors at Cornell University predict that AI will be using 4.2 – 6.6 billion cubic meters by 2027. This is the equivalent of the entirety of the UK’s water use annually.
How Is AI Using So Much Water?
The AI process requires enormous data centers. These hold the information that the AI has gathered to learn from. It is able to draw on these data centers to help you write an email or recommend a restaurant.
Currently, the average AI data center uses 100MW, which requires 2 million liters of water a day. A lot of this water will be withdrawn water, reducing the local area’s supply. To make matters worse, this water is usually potable to avoid jamming up the cooling systems. It is all water initially intended for human consumption.
This doesn’t even begin to take into consideration the amount of water that AI uses to acquire the electricity. Both thermoelectric and hydroelectric plants use vast amounts of water. This only adds to the enormous use of a growingly limited resource.
So, next time you decide to use AI to tidy up your email, think about their wasteful design. There’s not even enough drinking water for humans without AI slurping it all up.