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AI is draining water from areas that need it most (www.bloomberg.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I don't mean to sound like a dick but do they have proof or anything linking the data centers as the cause to the high water stress? This seems like a very short article claiming they use a lot of water (which they likely do) but don't present anything other than "Ai consumes in mense amounts of water to cool...". You'd think they don't require as much water due to the fact they are being built in already stressed out areas.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 weeks ago

Many data centers rely on evaporative cooling, or “swamp cooling,” where warm air is drawn through wet pads. Data centers typically evaporate about 80% of the water they draw, discharging 20% back to a wastewater treatment facility, according to Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside. Residential water usage, by comparison, loses just 10% to evaporation, discharging the other 90%, Ren said. (A spokesperson for Google said the company doesn’t have a standard percentage because any data center would see some variation based on factors like location, temperature and humidity.)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I’m also confused on how they are “consuming” the water. I’m guessing they aren’t closed loop like most later cooling, but are they just… using it till it evaporates? I legitimately don’t understand where this water goes that it’s just… gone?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

are they just… using it till it evaporates?

Yes, but I'd say it goes further. Using it until it evaporates isn't a side effect of some other cooling process. Evaporating the water is the cooling process.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Presumably not gone, just from food quality to dirty.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But then could it not just be recirculated? I’m not understand why we are assuming we pull out of the tap, and dump into the sewer, when that sounds incredibly costly. Would they not just.. dump into a cooling tank, then reuse when down to temp?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Refer to my comment above. It is not recirculated as per the article

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I feel that although there are many issues with how machine learning/"AI" is being used, there isnt really as much of an environmental issue as we are led on to believe. Many will write about how AI consumes large amounts of energy, but will not mention how data centers only make 1-2% of energy consumption worldwide, and most data centers arent focusing fully on AI making the actual percentage of "worldwide energy used by AI" much much smaller.

Alex avila actually argued this very well in his newest video essay, even showing that much of this worry about AI energy use is backed by companies with stakes in energy.