Since the beginning of this year, the boom of artificial intelligence (AI) has swept the world. But did you know that talking to AI also consumes water?What is the reason behind the AI water fee?How much water do tech giants consume each year?
If a user asks 10 to 50 questions to ChatGPT, 500 ml of water may be consumed. And if thousands of users ask the AI questions at the same time, it's hard to estimate how much water will be consumed.
Why does AI consume water?
Training and running large AI models typically require tens of thousands of servers to provide compute resources, storage resources, and low-latency network connectivity, and these servers are deployed in clusters in physical locations called "data centers" that, when working together, generate highly concentrated heat for a short period of time, so large amounts of water are required for cooling.
Take Microsoft and Google, for example. In 2022, Microsoft used up about 1.7 billion gallons (6.4 billion liters) of water, which is equivalent to filling about 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming poolsGoogle's data centers and offices use a total of 5.6 billion gallons (21.2 billion liters) of water, the equivalent of 8,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Data shows that the computing power required for AI today is expected to double every 100 days and could grow more than a million times in the next five years. Researchers estimate that by 2027, global AI demand could require the consumption of 6.6 billion cubic meters of water, almost as much as the annual water withdrawal of the US state of Washington.
Ann Skeeter, Senior Director, Marcula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, USA: I think there will be regulators moving soon, and the European Union is going to increase the regulatory requirements next year to require companies to disclose their water use.
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Editor: Pan Xu.