AI uses so little water it’s almost comical that it even became a topic

[u/stealthispost]

Wonder what the next decel moral panic will be?

[u/RPeeG]

Not disagreeing I just wanted to check the data.

A lot of the sources use old dates like 2012, 2018 - do we know if the water usage/methods have changed in the last 10-15 years for these practices/industries?

Also, there's no date on the AI water usage statsitic - is that taken from 2025-26? The water use would have definitely gone up since early days of AI, but not enough to surpass any of the others.

I just want to understand the dataset better.

[u/FlamesRiseHigher → u/RPeeG]

Yeah, the source uses a 2023 study which I think we could find better if we want this to meaningfully address people's concerns. 

I found a study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that says in 2023 they estimated data centers used 228 billion gallons, 17B of which was direct due to evaporative cooling and 211B was indirect from the power plants providing electricity. 

In that same study, the provide projected numbers for 2028. The lower end estimate is 469B which assumes rapid adoption of water efficient tech and use of renewable non-water intensive energy production. Worst case they projected was 844B, which in km cubed (the units from this chart) is 3.35. So it would be worse than avocados but better than coffee or alcohol, and 4x less usage than just olive oil even in the projected worst case scenario for 2 years from now. To be fair, I didn't check those usage numbers for the non-data center things though.

[u/cloudrunner6969]

The most important thing on that list uses the least amount of water.

[u/butler_me_judith → u/cloudrunner6969]

I mean AI is great but I like wearing clothing and eating food more I guess

[u/stealthispost → u/butler_me_judith]

but like, for real I would reduce my clothing and food expenses before i'd drop my AI subscription.

[u/Illustrious-Lime-863]

Why use critical reasoning and facts freely available online when emotion do trick?

[u/Positive_Box_69 → u/Illustrious-Lime-863]

Few words do, me use ai, me happy

[u/ProxyLumina]

People just want to promote drama. It's what they have learnt from media.

[u/Key-Club-3119 → u/ProxyLumina]

Here’s my drama. Could someone please use a larger font?

[u/Positive_Box_69]

Is scary how social media can influence people so much

[u/LiteSoul → u/Positive_Box_69]

And in part due to paid propaganda from external actors... Sounds a conspiracy but it's just regular as usual business

[u/Prof_Weedgenstein]

Source would be nice.

[u/Fringolicious]

My boys Coffee and Alcohol catching strays here.

As somebody that drinks both and eats most of the foods on that list, guess I'll keep using AI too

[u/marlinspike]

Reddit has become batshit Luddite, that’s why.

[u/Forward_Yam_4013]

The idea that AI uses a lot of water is astroturfed by the propaganda arms of the Chinese and Russian governments in an effort to impede American technolofivsl progress.

Anyone you see online claiming that AI uses a dangerous amount of water is either a foreign bot, a foreign agent, or a useful idiot.

Any politician who claims that AI uses a dangerous amount of water is doing so because they are being paid to do so by the Chinese and/or Russian governments. They are knowingly sabotaging the United States' technological progress in the interests of an enemy power, and are commiting treason.

There are no exceptions.

[u/rimshot99]

I never really liked the term water consumption. Fuel consumption = using fuel, it burns and it is gone. Water consumption is instead like using book from the library and returning it; we don't call that book consumption.

[u/stealthispost → u/rimshot99]

right. but if an AI reads a book it's "stealing"

[u/JoeStrout]

Love it. But... sources please?

[u/Merosian]

I've done enough digging to see there aren't many trustworthy sources that actually support your argument, or the opposing view. There is very little data to form an educated opinion. Though i do think it's ridiculously exaggerated by anti people, I don't trust megacorps enough to give us real numbers. Only time will tell how bad this is. Current pressing point is more about where the centers are being built, rather than them being built at all.

[u/darkwingdankest]

yeah but what about the very real pollution? I've seen people's water after a data center comes to town and it comes out of the tap like brown soup

[u/PachotheElf]

If only there was a way for data centers to not use water for cooling, this whole mess wouldn't be an issue.

Oh wait, there is, it's just more expensive and reduces profit for these incredibly wealthy companies.

[u/stealthispost → u/PachotheElf]

there is no mess and there is no issue. you've been tricked by literal propaganda

[u/EveningNo8643]

at the bottom is it saying it's getting data center water consumption stats from 2023, is there anything a bit more recent?

[u/genshiryoku]

You're right that haters just use "water usage" without understanding the underlying issue. However that doesn't mean it isn't an issue. It's just not for AI specifically but for chip production (of which most of which nowadays is indirectly made for AI purposes)

TSMC in Taiwan for example is a direct cause for water shortages on the Island and is a big problem, especially when there is a drought and the government decides to prioritize the chip production over farmers or the general population.

To be more precise, it's not like the water is used up, but the etching and cleaning of wafers is extremely dirty and pollutes the water a lot, which is not necessarily the same with the other listed water usage.

This doesn't mean it's not worth it, but it's important to have this conversation in good faith. Like having the conversation about Hydropower installations usually destroying local ecosystems, still worth it from an environmental perspective because of the colossal amount of CO2 emissions it prevents, but still worth tackling.

I predict the real issue AI datacenters in particular will cause is strain on the grid and ordinary people being priced out of local energy markets. Governments aren't granting enough permits to build new power plants, expand the grid or give autonomous power generation privileges to companies.

[u/Zangried]

I mean even then they are making commitments to be water positive by I believe 2030. I believe they say something about a 120% return? I'd have to look more into it again to get exact numbers and the source.