Is AI Taking Our Water?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the world, from revolutionizing industries to reshaping daily life. But behind the impressive capabilities of AI is a hidden cost—one that is getting harder and harder to ignore. AI is a massive consumer of energy and water, placing additional strain on a planet already struggling with climate change and the rapid depletion of resources. As AI’s influence expands, so does its environmental footprint, raising increasingly urgent questions about sustainability in a robotic future.
Since the release of ChatGPT and the explosion of AI-backed tools, the energy demand for AI has skyrocketed. A single AI query can use up to ten times the energy of a traditional online search. Compared to other software, AI-driven systems consume 33 times more energy to complete a given task. As AI adoption and use continue to rise, this energy demand is turning into significant carbon emissions and water usage, which only intensifies concerns about the environmental impact of this new-age technology.
Data centers also require enormous amounts of electricity to power the hardware that keeps AI running. Even before AI took center stage, these facilities were consuming around 1-1.5 percent of the world’s total electricity. As companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta pour billions into AI development, the environmental impact has become more dire. Microsoft's emissions, for example, increased by 40 percent between 2020 and 2023, mostly because of expanded AI use. Likewise, Meta reported a rise in emissions of 65 percent. These numbers highlight the growing environmental footprint of AI and the challenge of making this technology more sustainable.
Energy is only part of the problem. This may come as a surprise to many, but AI also consumes large amounts of fresh water. The same data centers that host AI hard drives rely on water-based cooling systems to prevent overheating. Cooling systems and air mechanisms are used to cool down data centers while simultaneously evaporating an average of nine liters of water per kWh of energy. This depletion of water is in combination with water already being used to fuel other energy plants. The water that evaporates is often non-replenishable, meaning that a majority of the cooling water is not returned to the environment in a usable form.
To put things into perspective, training a large AI model like the earlier version of ChatGPT (GPT-3) consumed millions of liters of water. Recently, the much larger GPT-4 was introduced, which means even higher water consumption than GPT-3. That is millions of liters of water that may or may not be naturally replenished. AI demand is only projected to increase, meaning massive amounts of water will continue to be drained.
Despite these challenges, AI could actually aid in environmental conservation and sustainability efforts. It has the potential to make everyday life more energy-efficient by reducing waste in key areas. In homes and buildings, AI-powered systems can adjust heating, cooling, and lighting based on occupancy and weather conditions, cutting down on unnecessary energy use. In transportation, AI helps optimize routes, reducing fuel consumption and congestion. By making these everyday processes smarter and more efficient, AI could be used to inversely help the environment instead of simply destroying it.
Although AI’s impact on the environment is continuing to rise, major tech companies are beginning to recognize AI's environmental cost and are making commitments to attempt to limit its impact. Microsoft, Google, and Meta have pledged to become water-positive by 2030, meaning that they are aiming to produce more water than they consume. These goals include initiatives such as investing in and replenishing watersheds. Hopefully, tech companies will continue to support these efforts to help lessen their environmental impact.
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into every aspect of life, it is important to strike a balance between technological advancement and environmental responsibility. AI has the potential to drive solutions for climate change and resource management, but if left unregulated, its impact could be detrimental. Coupled with its substantial water consumption for cooling data centers, AI’s energy-intensive nature poses a significant challenge to sustainability efforts. The conversation about AI in relation to the environment needs to be as prominent as discussions about AI’s capabilities because, without proper regulations, technology that could be useful in the fight against climate change will end up accelerating it instead. This balance demands collaboration and innovation from policymakers and AI companies alike to ensure that AI development agrees with long-term environmental goals.