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Using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to 3 bottles of water — AI data centers also raise power and water bills for nearby residents

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/using-gpt-4-to-generate-100-words-consumes-up-to-3-bottles-of-water-ai-data-centers-also-raise-power-and-water-bills-for-nearby-residents

Net-zero emission goals went out the window with AI.

Using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to 3 bottles of water — AI data centers also raise power and water bills for nearby residents

Net-zero emission goals went out the window with AI.

18 comments

fubarx

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The Excel spreadsheet that calculates this has so many 'assumption' cells.

Bob_Robertson_IX

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We need municipal datacenters that can be integrated into the municipal water departments, and municipal electrical grid. Use the hot water to provide 'on tap' hot water for local businesses that need it.

Affidavit

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Huh. I run a LLM locally on my own machine. Not looking forward to my next water bill.

nexguy

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Have you checked your computer's gallons per hour? I'm thinking of getting an electric myself.

peanuts4life

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Wait... What? The article seems to imply that the water is consumed, but it's referencing the water used in cooling loops.

Nawor3565

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Data centers don't have "water cooling loops" that are anything like the ones in consumer PCs. To maximize cooling capacity, a lot of the systems use some sort of evaporative cooling that results in some of the water just floating away into the atmosphere (after which point it would need to be purified again before it could be used for human consumption)

It also seems from what I can find like some data centers just pipe in clean ambient-temperature water, use it to cool the servers, and then pipe it right back out into the municipal sewer system. Which is even more stupid, because you're taking potable water, sending it through systems that should be pretty clean, and then mixing it with waste water. If anything, that should be considered "gray water", which is still fine to use for things like flushing toilets.

morbidcactus

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I would be really surprised if anyone is cooling data centres with city water except in emergency, that's so unbelievably expensive (could see water direct from a lake though but that had it's own issues too). I recall saving millions just by adjusting a fill target on an evaporative cooling tower so it wouldn't overfill (levels were really cyclic, targets weren't tuned for them), and that was only a fraction of what it'd have cost if we'd've used pure city.

todd_bonzalez

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This is correct. You don't need potable water for cooling systems. Releasing vapor returns natural water where it came from, without adding any more heat to the environment than you already were.

The environmental cost of AI needs to be measured in gigawatt hours, distributed over different energy generation methods.

Adding heat to the system isn't a big deal if you're powered by solar energy, for example.

YerbaYerba

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My work drilled water wells for evaporative cooling in their datacenter.

AndrewZabar

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As with everything else, we need the government to regulate it because otherwise the corporations don’t really give a shit.

kitnaht

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In this world, we obey the law of thermodynamics. I'd love to know how this 3 bottles of water is "consumed". Because more than likely, the water is simply being used for cooling, which doesn't consume it at all, it just makes it warmer.

Zikeji

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Yeah the article is disingenuous at best. There are many things wrong with generative AI, but this is just a lousy approach.

If I make a PC, put in a water cooling loop, and use it to run an LLM - sure, water is circulating, but that water isn't just vanishing lol.

iAmTheTot

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My friend, you are naive at best if you think AI data centers are using closed loop water cooling. Look up evaporative cooling towers. It's "consumed" in the sense that it is evaporated.

Zikeji

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I specifically avoided saying they did because I wasn't knowledgeable on the topic. But I agree, I could equally be accused of being disingenuous by phrasing it in a way that could lead people to assume they use closed loops.

I did look those up, and while evaporation cooling isn't the only method used, it also doesn't evaporate all the water each pass, only a portion of it (granted "a portion" is all I found at a quick look, which isn't actually useful).

I do agree though, the water usage is excessive, and when though that water only "changes forms", it's still removes it from a water source and only some of it may make its way back in.

groet

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It consumes the resource of "purified, available water" which is consumed as it is no longer purified or unavailable (if evaporated). The same way nothing ever "consumes" energy, it just makes it unusable.

LostXOR

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The water simply vanishes, consumed by the AI's ever growing need for H Y D R A T I O N. /s

ninjabard

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It's almost like these "services" are an unnecessary blight that benefit only those that profit financially from them.

desktop_user

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that, is what a service always was and will continue to be, live service games, service jobs, telco service. this isn't new, it just affects more people