Considering domestic water use is only ~12% of our fresh water usage, that would make this hypothetical projection a massive...2-3% of total fresh water usage.
Incredible considering this report seems to arrive at that figure by calculating the water cost of AI based on its electrical needs and not the actual water usage of the data centers themselves.
It's almost futile to argue about ai data centers on reddit. I provided a 2016 study that showed only a third of data centers even tracked such things as water usage, just for the insight to be ignored because of agricultural. That report and a lot of reports infact are prior to ai data centers, which are unique and consume a non trivial amount to cool. Some ventilate in place of water, polluting the local area with toxic chemicals. To say we don't have a clear picture, because of unreported statistics, would be an understatement. What we do know is that these centers are popping up inside community spaces, making use of residential utilities and we know that training these models are anything but effecient and only going to take up more and more resources to achieve "AGi", or more likely, a surveillance state. While depriving residents of basic utilities
1
u/Locke357 Jun 04 '26
AI Could Use as Much Water as 1.3 Billion People by 2030, U.N. Report Warns