AI’s excessive water consumption threatens to drown out its environmental contributions
theconversation.com
Artificial intelligence promises revolutionary solutions to global challenges, but the water costs to produce and power AI hardware and infrastructure may exceed the benefits.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10267315

Initial research shows that AI has a significant water footprint. It uses water both for cooling the servers that power its computations and for producing the energy it consumes. As AI becomes more integrated into our societies, its water footprint will inevitably grow.

The growth of ChatGPT and similar AI models has been hailed as “the new Google.” But while a single Google search requires half a millilitre of water in energy, ChatGPT consumes 500 millilitres of water for every five to 50 prompts.

  • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
    91·
    9 months ago

    Freshwater is not an infinite source. It’s something that I was taught in school in the 90s when people actually gave a shit about the planet and each other.

    • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
      34·
      9 months ago

      Yes they tell you a lot of simplified things in school, I went to school in the 90s too so I remember the lessons on the water cycle and water table depletion and stuff… back then people were worried about water wars between Isreal and Jordan for example but they now work together on a desalination project which is refilling the Sea of Galilee. Things have changed since we were in school.

      Freshwater is just clean water, we have loads of it fall from the sky and we can take dirty water and clean it even when it’s salty. As long as we have dirty water we can make clean water and the planet is like 70% dirty water so honestly we’re more likely to run out of pretty much anything else. P