AI Water Consumption Is Getting Out of Hand

How much water does artificial intelligence (AI) use? Is the water consumption manageable, or is it contributing to a crisis?

AI systems like ChatGPT are consuming massive amounts of water, straining already stressed water resources. Some experts warn that continued, unfettered AI water use will fuel global water scarcity problems—which are already on track to reach crisis levels by 2030.

Here’s a look at AI water consumption, and the possible outcomes.

AI Water Consumption Is Rising

In 2022, ChatGPT guzzled enough water to fill over 2,500 Olympic swimming pools—roughly one 16-ounce bottle of water for every 5 to 50 queries from each of its 100 million users. The exponential AI water consumption highlights Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems’ alarming thirst and has sparked debate over curbing the technology’s use before it drains limited reserves. 

Why AI Uses Water

AI systems like ChatGPT require vast amounts of computing power to analyze human language patterns and generate coherent text. This intensive process generates enormous heat that must be dissipated to prevent computer shutdowns. Data centers—the physical facilities that house servers and storage that underpin ChatGPT and other chatbots—frequently use water cooling systems to regulate temperatures. Water is the cheapest way to cool servers.  

How Much Water Are AI Systems Using?

Historically, tech firms have declined to share details about their water consumption in individual centers, citing these data as trade secrets. However, companies like Microsoft and Google have begun sharing information about their water use recently.

• Microsoft’s water use jumped 1.7 billion gallons in a single year.
• Google used 5.6 billion gallons of water last year.

View 1: AI Water Consumption Is a Problem

Environmental researchers and advocacy groups argue that excessive AI water use strains local communities’ drinking water supply. Left unchecked, AI’s growing water consumption will worsen stress on municipalities, agriculture, and other industries already grappling with drought and limited water supplies. This will exacerbate global water scarcity issues, which are projected to reach crisis levels by 2030. 

View 2: AI Water Consumption Issues Are Manageable

AI companies including Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI, acknowledge that they’re using large amounts of water but frame the issue as a solvable challenge. Efforts they say they’ve initiated and are exploring to mitigate the problem include:

• Funding and implementing water replenishment projects, which tap into freshwater reserves but do so with the goal of extracting at a lower rate and with greater effectiveness.  
• Investing in research to improve AI systems’ efficiency. Lowering AI models’ energy requirements through better algorithms and hardware would cut water use by reducing the computing power and number of data centers.
• Using air-cooled and evaporative cooling technologies in data centers located in water shortage-prone regions.
• Locating data centers in the ocean. In 2018, Microsoft submerged a self-contained data center in the waters off the coast of Scotland to take advantage of colder ocean floor temperatures. Two years later, the company reported substantial energy efficiency improvements as a result of the action.

Looking Ahead

Some experts express concern that AI companies’ efforts to mitigate their excessive water use will be inadequate to meet the challenges of the future given current growth. They argue that water replenishment efforts aren’t a sustainable solution if total consumption continues to rise exponentially, and that efficiency gains won’t be able to keep pace indefinitely. The rapid growth in demand for computer power, driven by AI, is a significant concern, doubling every 100 days and projected to increase more than a millionfold in the next five years with no sign of slowing. If unfettered AI expansion remains a top priority, negative environmental impacts are virtually unavoidable.

Want to fast-track your learning? With Shortform, you’ll gain insights you won't find anywhere else .

Here's what you’ll get when you sign up for Shortform :

• Complicated ideas explained in simple and concise ways
• Smart analysis that connects what you’re reading to other key concepts
• Writing with zero fluff because we know how important your time is

Start your free trial today!