AUSTIN, Texas — The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence technology could significantly strain Texas’ water resources, as data centers consume vast amounts of water to cool the computers powering AI systems.
One study highlighted that a 100-word email using ChatGPT consumes the equivalent of one bottle of water.
Peter Voss, an AI expert, said, “It’s amazing what it can do. It can do these summaries and come up with a poem. You can have a conversation.”
“I think you’ll continue to see innovation, after innovation, after innovation in the AI space,” said Cris Turner, Vice President of Knowledge & Information Products with Google.
However, the excitement surrounding AI comes with a cost, particularly in drought-prone states like Texas. Mohammed Islam, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, explained the scale of the issue. “It’s a lot of water to consume,” he said, noting that ChatGPT-4’s training model used the equivalent of the water consumed by 30,000 households daily for 100 days.
Islam further explained, “Oh yeah, it turns out to be very thirsty,” and added, “We cannot get it back,” referring to the water that evaporates during the cooling process.
The energy demands of AI also exacerbate the water problem. Voss mentioned, “We heard that 3 Mile Island is going to be recommissioned purely for Microsoft to feed Microsoft’s data center.” Islam noted, “They consume a lot of water. So that means you are going to get rid of the problem of energy but you’re going to create a much larger problem in terms of water.”
In response, some Texas data centers are exploring innovative solutions, such as shifting workloads to cooler nighttime hours and implementing rainwater harvesting systems.
The question remains: Can innovation keep pace with AI’s growing demands, or will the thirst for computing power deplete Texas’s precious water resources? Perhaps, one day, AI itself will help find the answer.
This was a special edition of CBS Austin anchor Walt Maciborski’sTECH THIS OUT.
